Three hours of hiking up and down a Guatemala volcano with international strangers can educate one about all kinds of topics from worldwide local economies to worldwide local healthcare systems.  The topic of dental care came up and I was not surprised to hear a common comment. Dentistry was “so expensive”.  I heard the story of a “good friend” going to Costa Rica to have major dental work done for a mere $1500 after a diagnostic treatment plan of $10,000 by their US dentist.  After that story, I asked them, would you go to Costa Rica, Thailand, or a similar country to have open-heart surgery or cancer treatment done?  Their answer was, “no way”!  I asked then, why would one go there for major dental work?

 

I was surprised to hear that none of my new international friends had ever heard of dental insurance.  They were more impressed that many US employers actually paid for their employee’s dental insurance.  The dental insurance world, as we know it, continues to change annually with more and more employers looking for ways to save money, many reducing their employee dental benefits to some form of a PPO or DMO dental plan.  This of course puts a bigger financial strain on those employees (our patients) that have chosen to see their dentists that only accept traditional insurance plans.

 

Let’s face it, very few of us will ever be a “John Kois or Frank Spears dentist”, financially secure, not depending on the dental insurance patient and demanding cash only at the front desk.  As much as we complain about the insurance companies and their continued efforts to control our quality of care for our patients by squeezing more dollars out of our treatment procedures and refusing to raise their maximum annual limits, maybe we should be thankful there is such a thing as dental insurance.

 

With all the talk of healthcare reform and a new administration having a House and Senate majority we might very well see some major reform in our current medical system and this could include dentistry (another excellent reason to be a part of organized dentistry).  But for today, let’s all be thankful we live in the USA and we have a thing called dental insurance.  The question is, for how much longer?

 

Wayne Radwanski, DDS

President CADS 2008-09