So, is it worth it to get an electric toothbrush and put away that old manual one. Well, in my opinion absolutely. Don't get me wrong, the manual toothbrush is great and people can do a fine job with it, but there are disadvantages. The biggest problem I see in my dental practice are those perfectionists, as I like to call them. They want to do such a great job brushing that they brush too hard. Sometimes so hard that they can actually wear away the tooth and gums. The electric does not depend on hand motion, so it automatically will help prevent that erosion from happening.
When I say electric tooth brush, I am referring to sonic toothbrushes. There are several on the market, but I personally prefer the sonicare. The way it works is it vibrates at a very high frequency as you move it across the teeth. The sonic energy is capable of putting much more beneficial energy to clean away stain and plaque than the old manual brush will. So get a sonicare and I think it will be hard to go back to that old toothbrush again.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Amalgam Fillings versus Tooth Colored Fillings
There are so many different opinions out there on this topic, without a whole lot of consensus in this country. Here is my own personal professional opinion.
Amalgam fillings are the silver fillings that everyone has seen. They are a mixture of silver, mercury , and other ingredients that hardens after being mixed. For years, this material was the standard as far as filling materials went. Today I feel like we have better materials and in particular
So how do we figure how much they will actually cover, well we try to look at other instances that we have dealt with that particular company and what they paid. Or, we have to make the best estimate that we can. Either way we are estimating since they will not tell us exactly.
Another caveat of dental insurance is the "preferred provider". What this means is that they are "preferred" by the insurance company since that office has signed a contract with the insurance company. Why would the dentist do that? The dentist is then put on the list for the insurance company providers, so it is marketing. The insurance company requires the dentist to only charge fees according to a list that they are given. As you can imagine, the fees that the insurance company designates are substantially lower, sometimes 30to 40% lower than average dental fees. This sounds good for the patient, but sometimes the dental office has to make up for this loss in other ways, such as seeing more patients in shorter appointments. Ask yourself what you would do at your work if your employer wanted the same results, but asked you to take 40% less of your salary. We want our patients to have the highest quality dental treatment, so we take the time to provide all options and let the patient, not the insurance company, choose what is best for them.
So I don't want to paint a completely negative picture about In our office, we are glad to do everything that we can to maximize the patients benefits for they treatment they want.
Amalgam fillings are the silver fillings that everyone has seen. They are a mixture of silver, mercury , and other ingredients that hardens after being mixed. For years, this material was the standard as far as filling materials went. Today I feel like we have better materials and in particular
So how do we figure how much they will actually cover, well we try to look at other instances that we have dealt with that particular company and what they paid. Or, we have to make the best estimate that we can. Either way we are estimating since they will not tell us exactly.
Another caveat of dental insurance is the "preferred provider". What this means is that they are "preferred" by the insurance company since that office has signed a contract with the insurance company. Why would the dentist do that? The dentist is then put on the list for the insurance company providers, so it is marketing. The insurance company requires the dentist to only charge fees according to a list that they are given. As you can imagine, the fees that the insurance company designates are substantially lower, sometimes 30to 40% lower than average dental fees. This sounds good for the patient, but sometimes the dental office has to make up for this loss in other ways, such as seeing more patients in shorter appointments. Ask yourself what you would do at your work if your employer wanted the same results, but asked you to take 40% less of your salary. We want our patients to have the highest quality dental treatment, so we take the time to provide all options and let the patient, not the insurance company, choose what is best for them.
So I don't want to paint a completely negative picture about In our office, we are glad to do everything that we can to maximize the patients benefits for they treatment they want.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
