Affordable dental care?

 

I like shopping at Ikea. The prices are great and the furnishings are good looking, but I have some traditional furniture that I inherited from my mother or purchased from crate and barrel that has held up extremely well and I expect it to serve me well for many years to come. My Ikea purchases have  not always held up as well. I have thrown out all the rugs I bought there after several years and I do not purchase any upholstered furniture there. 

There are some parallels that can be drawn with dentistry. Are crowns and other restorations the same regardless of which dentist we choose to help us? After all, all dentists we see are licensed and have received the same training in dental school? Also if I see a dentist with a well maintained dental office and busy practice, (with lots of nice google reviews) they must be pretty good?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, since the test of quality dentistry is how it holds up over time. Also the ability of a dentist to treatment plan appropriately doesn't correlate to the look and feel of his or her dental office. Instead it has to do with the core beliefs, training and motivations of  a dentist. 

All patients really want an honest and thorough evaluation by their dentist during their check up and if dental work is needed there is an expectation that the work will be well done and last a long time. In fact many patients believe that once work to restore a tooth it should last  a decade or more ( not always true!). Simultaneously many want their dentist to be on their insurance panel in order to minimize their co- pay. Hopefully a patients high expectations will be met by their provider but not always, since most dentists have their own expectations involving how much time should be spent on each procedure and that they should make an adequate profit as well. 

Sometimes cheap can be expensive, especially when it can lead to the need for multiple restorations for the same tooth. Also the more times a tooth is treated correlates with an increased risk of additional types of procedures in the future (crowns, root canals, extractions or implants). That being said, it's clear that many people are struggling with their finances and are seeking affordable dental care. 

Right now at the end of the year we are inundated with advertisements promoting Advantage Medicare plans that seem to be promising extremely affordable healthcare that may even include dental benefits. If one looks further at the matter it is clear that companies that sponsor these ads must be generating a healthy profit in order to afford paying for all their advertising. Unfortunately most of us are not fully informed with the actual facts needed to make our choices. We don't have data showing the the quality of medical and dental service that these plans will be delivering. 

 Insurance companies seem to be heavily invested in driving down the fees that their participating dentists are allowed and at some point one needs to wonder about how the quality of dental services will be effected? In fact when I asked whether my son could participate in my networks they informed me that the panels that I participate in are full and he will be forced into a lower fee panel. If this trend continues further it is likely that the quality of delivered services will be compromised.