My top aligner is in a parking lot. I’ve made it 11 weeks without losing them, but, I guess it was inevitable. While, a bathing suit holds the aligners better then a pocket, the Invisalign case is probably the best place to store them when you take ‘em out…

Catch my previous blog

Are you ready to start your Invisalign Story? make an appointment for your Free Smile consultation today!

I am continually surprised by people that don’t go to the dentist for 5+ years because they don’t have a dental benefit plan.  It’s like dental benefits  are the entry ticket to go to the dentist.

The bottom line here is: things you plan on keeping for a lifetime you take care of. 

You wouldn’t dream of neglecting your car’s oil changes for 5 years cause your car would be in really bad shape if you  did. You want to keep your car in good running condition because you need it and you want it.  And you have car insurance that you pay a lot of money for, but that car insurance doesn’t pay for your oil changes.

You wouldn’t dream of neglecting many household repairs for any length of time because a small repair turns into a big repair if you don’t take care of it.  But some dental patients are shocked when they come to the dentist after a long absence and that little amount of decay has turned into a much more expensive crown.  Hang on to your money.  Let a dentist find decay in your tooth when it’s small and less expensive.

So the top tip if you want to keep your teeth is take care of them and home diligently and see a dentist regularly.  And every five years isn’t regularly unless of course…. you aren’t using your teeth and my guess is that you use them quite often..

Once again we are collecting toys for kids this holiday season.  You can drop off your dontations at our dental office at 1220 Grandview Ave, 43212 until Thursday Dec 11th during normal business hours.  We will also have a drop box on our porch if you want to drop something off after hours.

We will then take the donations to the Firefighters 4 Kids toy drive sponsered by NBC 4 on Dec 12th. 

Click here to see our blog post after last year’s toy drive!

Preferred Provider is a term used by the Insurance Industry to make it sound like these doctors/dentist are “better” than others.  Makes it seem that perhaps your Insurance company has graded the dentist in some way to prefer them over all the other dentists in the area.

In reality, a “Preferred Provider” to a dental insurance company is a dentist that has agreed to take reduced fees in order to be on a list.  And remember that no dentist goes on a list to make less money.  It means they need more patients and they will reduce their fees to get them.

So, how do they make up for the reduced fees?  One way is double booking appointments so they can see more patients in the same day and make up for what they are reducing in thier fees.  What does double booking appointments mean to you?  A long wait in the reception area, in the dental chair, and being rushed through your appoinment just to start with.

Dental Insurance is different than Medical Insurance - In many ways, too many to put in the blog post.  But here are the highlights

• 9 out of 10 medical doctors are on an Insurance preferred provider list
• 2 out of 10 dentists are on an Insurance preferred provider list
• Medical Insurance Lifetime maximum coverage per patient can be 1 million dollars
• Dental Insurance Annual maximum coverage per patient ranges from $800 – $1500 per year.  That would be a lot of years before it reached a million.
• Medical Insurance monthly premium fee is hundreds of dollars
• Dental Insurance monthly premium fee is $10 for a family of 4

So when you decide to chose a dentist because your insurance provider has them on a list, think about this:   Did you spend more time chosing where you are going for lunch?