Dental Care: More Important Than You Might Realize
Anyone who has ever had to spend the day with a ghastly toothache can tell you just how important proper dental care really is. Even going beyond just living a life free from oral pain, however, dental care in the United States is a great deal more important than some may realize for a host of different reasons that can influence overall well-being. Carrington College developed the following infographic, “What Do Your Teeth Say About You?” (scroll down) to share some interesting and important facts about dental health and dental identity.
Preventative Care: Save Your Health (and Your Money)
One of the major reasons to get preventative dental care beyond your health has to do with the average costs of some of the most common procedures performed by dentists across the United States. According to SettlementFunding.com, a single root canal will set you back an average of $1,000. If you happen to be unfortunate enough to need gum surgery, you’ll spend an estimated $1,500 to $2,200 per quadrant. Dental implants will cost you between $2,000 and $4,000 per tooth. A set of braces can cost you $6,000, while a set of veneers will cost an estimated $10,000 to $30,000 a piece.
While it’s true that you can save a great deal of money just by shopping around and finding the best price, you can save even more money through the right type of preventative care as soon as possible. It helps to fix small issues before they become much larger, more painful and ultimately more expensive ones down the road—which we can all agree is a good thing.
Prevent Stains and Improve Appearance
An issue that millions of Americans deal with on a daily basis is a generally yellowed, stained appearance to their teeth. In addition to acting as a sign of poor oral health, stained teeth actually make you look older, less attractive and can even make you less employable than a set of healthy, pearly whites.
If you want to avoid stained teeth, there are a few key tips to keep in mind. Not only should you be drinking most of your liquids like coffee or cola with a straw, you should also rinse your mouth out with water immediately afterwards. Never brush your teeth less than 30 minutes after eating, because brushing too soon can actually increase the wear on your teeth and harm them, not help them like many people think.
All of this paints a very important picture regarding not only the importance of oral and dental health across the country, but the key role that dental professionals play in our lives on a daily basis. A qualified dental care professional doesn’t just make sure that our teeth aren’t causing us pain – they make sure that we have the type of smile that we’re satisfied with, that contributes positively to our own self image and that we’re happy to show off to other people. When you consider things from that perspective, you begin to realize that dental care is not something that you can afford to pass up.
Graphic idea development by Carrington College’s dental assistant program.
