There are really only three types of dental care.
- Emergency Care: This is the most expensive and uncomfortable of the three categories. It comes at times inconvenient to all. In children it can be the pivotal dental event that then ruins them for obtaining good dental care for the rest of their lives.
- Preventive Care: This is the least expensive and the least appreciated of the three categories. By not setting aside the little time and money required to obtain a reasonable interval of examinations and cleaning appointments throughout life, people end up in the other two categories spending more money and having more dental problems.
- Reconstruction: Once the fires have been put out and the individual is back on a preventive schedule it is possible to rebuild what has been lost. As long as no new dental problems develop (because of good preventive care) this reconstructive phase can usually be accomplished in a manner that enables people to afford it.
So what’s the take home lesson here? Stay connected to routine preventive dental care. The most challenging time in life to do this seems to be when people leave home and go to college. Because they are having no real problems, they blow off the care until one day they are taking their children to their first dental appointment and it occurs to them that they might need a check up as well.