Settling for Less? Think Again

Health is wealth…and our mouth is part of it.

Over the years, we have frequently encountered patients who had serious regrets on their past experiences with dental treatments over unbelievably cheap rates. Most of them have undeservingly lost their healthy teeth just to save a space for aesthetics, while others have no significant improvements on their teeth alignment over months of wearing ortho braces. Worst for some were instances of disturbing smiles and toothaches brought by substandard or cheap materials used to fill in those missing parts, which forced them to find another dentist for a second opinion. After damages were done, patients have no choice but to spend twice in expense for relief from pain and discomfort.

Inasmuch as we want to help our patients on their budgets for oral care, but we need to know the reasons why dental treatments are costly aside from the expected rationale that dentists are doctors who spent years of expensive training and dedicated brains. By knowing these information, we would also get some advises for us to have ideas that dentists are doing their jobs professionally:

1. Dental Treatments involve scientific and medical approaches. Our mouth is part of human anatomy that also engages complicated connections with the rest of our body. While most of these systems are printed on the dental charts, only licensed dentists have the competence to see safety measures in approaching oral problems of the patients without sacrificing other systems to suffer as collateral damage, and of course, their hard-earned professional licenses are at stake for the practices they fail to master. To know that treatments are done scientifically, dentists are expected to:
   • Medically explain in layman’s term the condition of the problem to the patient prior treatment.
   • Condition the patient the expected results or side effects of the treatment if ever there are.
   • Maintain a patient dental record to monitor the development of the patient.
   • Issue appropriate medical prescription after treatment (if applicable)
2. Dental Treatments require sophisticated equipment. Dental chairs, autoclaves, xrays, and dental instruments are specialized equipment that are highly expensive and require technical maintenance through professional dental technicians. Aside from the purpose to make treatments more easier for dentists, these equipment are designed to make sure that treatments are done with accurate assessments and further prevent discomfort to the patients. In order to ensure accuracy and sterile dental procedures, dentists are basically expected to:
   • Sterilize all dental instruments through autoclave
   • Conduct Xray procedure to assess internal situation of the cavity
   • Comfortably position of the patients to achieve right angles for treatment
3. Dental Treatments have options for quality materials to be used. While appropriate dental appliances (crowns, implants, braces or any foreign objects to be installed in the patients’ cavity) play important parts for the treatment, prices of these materials vary depending on the quality and brand. This means, the higher the price, the better the quality and comfort. Thus, decision to these options are highly under the burden of the patient depending on their priority between quality and quantity. With these reasons, dentists are expected to:
   • Technically explain the pros and cons of the options for the patients’ decision
   • Highly recommend the best option that fits both financial and dental condition of the patients
   • Discourage patients to choose the poorest option in order to achieve better quality applicable.

When we already recognize dental treatment as a necessity for our oral problems, we also accept that it connotes reasonable expenses the moment we enter a dental clinic. And while we have the option to settle for less, let us consider that oral health is also a wealth worthy for well-being investment… because our overall health starts from our mouth and everything we eat.