Dentistry - Not Taken Seriously, Anyone Agree?

Well, my personally, I do make appointment unless I have too. My mouth is a dental nightmare and I am terrified of the dentist. That plays a huge part for me. Now when I was a child I started going to the dentist early and continued through my teens years on a regular basis. It was when I got pregnant my teeth got really bad, it just went down hill from there. Also, I don't have insurance so it is all out of pocket, so of course I dont' have that kind of money. Just a couple of months ago, it cost my husband nearly 400.00 ( us) to have a tooth pulled. However, I feel like the majority of the people do take care of their teeth and see a dentist on a regular basis, but it is those that are blessed enough to have insurance, AND no fear for the dentist. Oh yeah, there are some that are really blessed and born with beautiful teeth and will go through life with no dental appointments. It makes me cringe just thinking about the dentist...YUK !

I don't know, I've had dental insurance since I was about 25, and I've gone pretty much every year or more often since then. But for people who aren't insured, well a lot of them choose not to go. Of course, the longer you put it off, the worse it is, cost-wise and for your teeth.

We are fortunate that since we moved, we have found an NHS dentist. When we lived in the city we had to start paying monthly insurance that was quite a drain. I am getting to the stage in life where I am needed more work done on my teeth and I always go for my check-ups 6-monthly. I would like to lose any more teeth as I have 4 molars missing and I would hate to lose any front ones. I am fortunate that the check-up is free for me now, but it still costs for the hygenist, but not so much as the monthly insurance was before. Get you husband to go regularly if you can Janey, as later in life there may be more work to be done. _Derek

Hi Janey, I am from India and medical cost are very less in India. Yes dentistry is a costly branch of medicine and unfortunately we all want best of medical facilities yet dont want to pay as much as a cost of nice meal in a good resturant, which is a shame. In India we got both kind of dentists. In Govt sector and in pvt sector. In govt sector your extractions, scalings, fillings, rct is as good as free but they are costly in pvt sector and ofcourse ceramics are costly and done only in pvt sector.

I don't regularly carry dental insurance and I don't regularly go to the dentist. It's expensive even with dental insurance. But I'm having trouble with my teeth (I know I have peridontal disease) and I'm dreading getting dental insurance and going to the dentist. It'll have to wait (hopefully) until next year when I can pick up dental insurance (and drop my eye insurance. I switch between eye and dental almost every year to cut costs). If my teeth keep hurting like they have been, I may be in emergency dental care...then, I guess I'll give up TV?

Here dentistry ,for the most part ,has gone private too.I have no remembrance of the last time visiting the dentist.That time,I had a pain in a decayed tooth and spent a little money on it.In school, I never had toothache perhaps because I didn't have a sweet teeth.

My husband doesn't visit the dentist at all....even when he needs to!! He doesn't allow any of us to either. But I did take my older son when he was 6 for a check up. Till I was married, we would get all our medical check ups done and visit the dentist once a year atleast (unless we needed more visits to get some job done). We had healthy teeth...maybe not as good as the media people...but good enough. Now, my older son who is 10 needs to visit the dentist and though my husband is the one who came up with the 'he's got to go to the dentist'...he's doing nothing about it yet. Private dental clinics have sprung up everywhere now. I can find 7 in the area I live....which is a half km stretch! Rates depend...they aren't very expensive but some charge higher for certain procedures.

Yes, seeing the dentist is expensive. They encourage you to visit and have your teeth cleaned twice a year. Schools want you to have a card filled out by the dentist before school starts. Adults avoid it. I go regularly now, and then I make payments. I like to get it done now before I have more extensive problems.

I think that in the UK there us a whole group of people that are effectively disenfranchised due to the fact that most decent dentists here go private at the first opportunity. Where I live there is only one NHS dentist out of at least 10 practices and she only takes children on as new patients. I have had two NHS dentists here and both went private wanting to charge me £16 a month not per session. We do have a walk in surgery here that provides a dental surgeon and the queue to see him is always long. However, in places like the US where you have to have insurance or there is no treatment the cost is much higher. Our care might seem high but it's not in comparison to there. Then again what is the point of the NHS if it's not available to the very people that the service is designed for?

Hiya Janey, Maybe it is taken seriously for some People though. A lot of People do not have good teeth and they need help to get them repaired. It´s very expensive here to go to the Dentist so not that many People are willingly eager to go either. I had a good Dentist while I was there. He was very strict but very good. Suppose you can´t have the best of both Worlds can you. Actually his bark was worse than his bit. Wow that is a long way to go to the Dentist I should say so. Can´t you get anyone a bit nearer?.

Hi Janey Wow I wasn't aware that denistry wasn't taken very seriously in the UK here in America at least from my experience it is taken seriously for a lot of people but of course you have those who don't and those who are afraid to go to the dentist I take it seriously because I would like to be able to keep as many of my teeth as possible Also I don't think its just about taking denistry seriously its about taking oral hygiene seriosly taking care of your own mouth in between visits by brushing and flossing

from where i stand i see it very important but my husband on the other hand sees dentists as money hungary people telling our kids they need braces when to him there is not a big need or really a need at all to have straight teeth and that your teeth should be just left alone

Dental services including a simple check up is pretty expensive here. But I believe most put it off as they are not feeling any pain/ailments so they take it for granted. But it is imperative to visit regularly as the cost later will be much higher.

Back in my homeland, the cost is almost the same like there in UK. But the thing that makes me hesitate to go to dentist is because back in my homeland, the dentists are not careful in handling the patient. Well, most of them. I mean, once, I had to get me front teeth done. Then he gave me a medicine that he buried inside it for few days, then when I came back he'd finish the work. But then, when he tried to finish his work, my teeth from inside wouldn't stop bleeding because of the pressure of the air that he gave in order to dry his work on my teeth. I kind of panicked, worried of what would he do. But then he just shoved another clay (I don't know how do you call the thing that looks like clay when they fix our teeth) to my teeth and finished his work. And months later, I found my teeth sore like hell and when I went to see my friend who's a dentistry student, she told me that my teeth need to go under some surgical thing called endo or something because of what that dentist did to my teeth... Since, I just don't want to go to any dentist in my homeland.... :(

It was expensive but my parents always took us to the dentist growing up. We went every 6 months. A cleaning was $80. Xrays were more. Luckily we never got cavities or had to have any more extreme work done or we would have had to have more work done. I have medicial coverage through welfare so I only pay a co-pay which is a few dollars. I just hate going to the dentist. It was 3 years between my last cleanings and she told me that I dont even need to come once a year if I dont want because my teeth dont get much plaque build up. I just scheduled an appointment for a year but who knows I may wind up cancelling it.