And Avoid the Emergency Room
Prevention is priceless.” — Dr. Ruchi Sahota, California dentist and ADA adviser
Every fifteen seconds, someone in the United States visits a hospital emergency room for a problem with their teeth. In some cases, dental care has been so long delayed that a minor cavity becomes a life-threatening infection. Says Dr. George Kushner of the University of Louisville, “People still die from their teeth in the U.S.” The shame of it all is expressed by Dr. Ruchi Sahota, “If we were going to the dentist more often, we could avoid a lot of this.”
Figuring the Cost
Emergency room visits for dental problems have doubled since the year 2000, with more than 2 million visits to hospitals for various oral ailments. Each visit averages nearly $750, considerably more than the cost of filling a tooth when a cavity first develops. What’s worse is that most patients do not receive dental care for the money they’ve spent — merely painkillers and antibiotics. They still end up having to visit the dentist! Once they do, the problem is usually so serious that there’s no longer a question of saving the tooth — the situation usually requires an extraction. “I take out teeth every week that could’ve been saved with restorative work,” says Dr. Kushner. The costs to the U.S. health care industry for all these unnecessary emergency room visits — over 1.6 billion dollars.
Saving Money and Keeping Your Teeth
Tooth ache and raging oral infections are all stopped before they happen with regular visits, every six months, to see the dentists at the Placerville Dental Group. Even without insurance, the cost of a semi-annual exam and cleaning is quite low. We have special payment plans and dental memberships available which make this type of care affordable even for families. The rule in dentistry is simple: fix problems early and they cost less to fix. Even if you have delayed and the problem is immediate, emergency dental service from our office saves you the cost of a fruitless and time consuming hospital emergency room visit. Call the Placerville Dental Group right away at (530) 444-5322 and come see us to solve your emergency and save you money over a trip to the hospital.
Some patients have dental insurance or the resources to pay for dental care, but avoid our office because they’re afraid of dentists, their tools and everything that goes with sitting in a dental chair. For these clients too we have a solution! Oral conscious sedation, popularly called “sleep dentistry,” takes your fears out of the equation. By administering a sedative in advance of your procedure, you effectively “sleep away” your treatment. While you can respond to commands from the doctor, you have no memory of the sounds, smells, tools or sensations experienced during your time in the chair. People who stayed away from the dentist for years use sleep dentistry to finally care for long-standing problems. Better yet, you can use it even for your semi-annual visits and stop major health problems before they even start!
There is No Excuse
So there really is no excuse for avoiding the dentist. With inexpensive insurance options, workable payment programs, dental discounts and sedation dentistry, every patient can have their oral health maintained before little problems become big ones. Save your money, your teeth and your life with regular dental care at the Placerville Dental Group!
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