How to preserve your teeth and save money at the same time?

 The goal of dentistry should be to help a patient preserve their dentition  to minimize tooth loss and preserve their oral health. A dentist's ability to help his patients becomes apparent over the course of the time a patient is under their care. Recalling patients for check ups and cleanings is a key component as well as proper diagnosis and treatment planning will help further this goal.  Patients can help themselves by  maintaining  a good diet,  oral hygiene, and by following their dentists recommendations.  I believe a patients cooperation is one or the most important factors.  

Using a well designed electric tooth brush and cleaning between your teeth either with floss or an interdental pic or brush will tend to keep the tooth surfaces free of plaque.  Plaque can cause both cavities and gum disease and the ability of a patient to keep their teeth clean between their recall appointments is a key to maintaining oral health.

That being said, even people with the best home care require regular cleanings and check ups  Most agree that two check ups and cleanings a year are a good idea. This prevents the long term build up of tarter and early correction of any tooth problems that occur. Early correction of tooth problems is the  best way to preserve our oral health  since it tends to minimize the amount of tooth structure lost due to caries and as well prevent bone loss due to periodontal disease . 

Choosing a good dentist is important since patients rely on the skill and integrity of a dentist to both advise them and perform necessary treatments in a careful and precise manner. Unfortunately many patients have had the experience of visiting a dentist who seems more interested in "upselling " expensive  elective dental treatments than doing the hard work of maintaining their oral health. For a dentist to be effectively preserve his patients teeth , he must be skilled and knowledgable in the procedures he offers.  Often less expensive, but well executed fillings can be better than poorly executed veneers or crowns. That doesn't mean that full coverage lab restorations, Invisalign or veneers  are a bad idea, but when they are poorly executed they can be detrimental to the longterm prognosis for the teeth they restore. 

Presently implants placed with the assistance of 3D digitally generated guides are potentially very successful but are also quite expensive. Preserving your existing dentition longterm is probably a more affordable option, but this requires that the patient and their dentist are committed to caring properly for their teeth so that they can retain them, even into their old age

Clearly choosing the right dentist is important to the future welfare of a patients teeth. Responding to slickly done advertisements is not the best way to choose a dentist. Instead when deciding on who to go to its often a good idea to ask ones friends about their dentists since  good "Word of mouth" is best way  to help with this decision. Since it takes awhile for restorations to fail its best to find patients who have been using a dentist for more than a couple of years. Listen to what your friends and colleagues have to say before making your choice. Although past performance is not a guarantee of future success, it's probably the best measure we  have about the quality of a dentists services.