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What is the Cost of a Dental Emergency in the United States?
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We all know that a dental emergency can be expensive. Especially, if we don’t have dental insurance to cover it. The expenses to cover for a dental emergency can be wide and can leave us with large bills to pay.
Patients can feel a financial impact in their pockets when they decide to let an oral disease spread around.
Plus, beyond the price of an emergency room, the equipment, among others expenses to cover.
Patients will need time to fix their dental problems properly.
That means that probably they are going to lose work or school days to solve their dental emergencies.
So, also, to pay a large hospital bill, they are going to feel the impact on lost wages or classes.
So, why let the time go by? We can search for solutions to our dental problems before they get bigger and bigger. A dental emergency can be expensive and can affect our daily lifestyle.
Sometimes patients avoid going to a dentist because they feel that they are going to receive bad news. Also, some of them are afraid and anxious about hitting the dentist chair even for regular check-ups.
Out there are still people believing that or thinking about their mouths as a separate part of their bodies.
They don’t realize that dental disease can affect the rest of their bodies. Medical researchers are showing that dental disease can be linked to heart diseases, pneumonia, diabetes, and other types of conditions that can affect vital points.
When people make early investments in their oral health, they can easily reduce the possibilities of having an emergency. Prevention is the key to avoid major problems in the future.
You can prevent starting with seeing a dentist in Mexico at least twice a year for preventive maintenance and regular teeth cleanings. Little things like that can improve your oral health keeping it on the right path.
Now, if you think that price can break your bank account, don’t worry. You don’t require big amounts of money to have proper dental health. Especially if you are near to the Mexican border of Tijuana.
Have in mind that the American Dental Association researched how much Medicaid spent during 2012 on dental emergencies. The result according to this research was that they spent nearly US 520 million on emergencies related to dental health, some of them ended up with the death of some patient’s right in the emergency room.
That is because a dental emergency not only can cost money to patients, but also to dental insurances companies. On the same year, the ADA found that the number of dental emergencies in the United States is growing year after year.
How Much Money can I Spend in a Dental Emergency?
Everyone knows that going to the dentist in the United States can be expensive. So, a lot of people are wondering right now how they can have proper dental health if they can’t afford a good dentist to prevent these events.
First thing first, you need to identify when is and when isn’t an emergency. You can know it when you realize that you can wait until your dentist can set you an appointment to see him in a couple of days.
Sometimes you can say that it can’t wait because you think you have a big dental problem in your hands.
Some of these problems can wait until the dentist can see you in two days or so. But if you have severe pain, bleeding, a cracked tooth or worse, you can say that you have a dental emergency.
The price to pay will depend on whether you have an emergency or if you can wait for a couple of days. For example, the cost for dental implants in Mexico can go from USD 1200 to USD 1500, if you need a bone graft or other treatment, consider that the price will increase.
As I was saying before, dental insurance companies spend a lot of money due to emergencies. Now try to imagine the prices of a dental emergency if you don’t have any coverage from an insurance company.
When you lost a filling or a dental crown, you can wait for a couple of days to see a dentist. But if you feel you can’t wait you can always see a good dentist near to you. A lot of people prefer to spend money coming to Tijuana to see a dentist that can help them with their emergencies.
So, if you can’t wait and you can make a trip to this city to see a dentist, go for it. Also, a lot of dental offices in Tijuana can see you in an emergency. If they have space to book you, they will see you during your emergency. If you can find a dental office in Tijuana in these cases, you can count with better prices.
You can save up thousands of dollars by coming to Tijuana. Now, keep in mind that it is better when you prevent all kind of dental emergencies. You can accomplish this mission by coming for regular check-ups.
A dental emergency without coverage of dental insurance in the United States can cost you more than US 1,000 or so. Remember that it all depends on what kind of emergency you have. Because usually if you need any surgery, the price can be even bigger.
Handling a Dental Emergency
How can you know if you have a dental emergency or not? Well, you can see here some scenarios to properly identify a dental emergency:
- Toothaches: probably this is the most common way to identify an emergency. If you have a toothache, you can try to reduce it with painkillers, by applying cold packs on the mouth area or your cheeks. If you have tried everything, but you can’t reduce the pain, and it is severe, maybe it is time to hit the emergency room.
- Chipped Teeth: If you have broken one or more of your teeth due to an accident, you can put gauze on the bleeding spot until you can stop it. You can also put some ice to reduce the pain and inflammation, but even with all this, if you can’t calm your pain or the wound is wide too open, you have a dental emergency in your hands.
- Lost Filling or Dental Crown: You need to see a dentist immediately if you lost a tooth filling. However, if you can’t see your dentist right at that moment, you can place dental adhesive, sugarless gum, dental cement, or other kinds of temporarily fillings to hold right at that spot until you see your dentist. This situation can be a dental emergency when you can’t place anything, and you feel tremendous pain. Food can enter your tooth and cause infection.
- Missing Brackets: this can be an emergency. But it can wait for a couple of days. You will need to see your dentist as soon as you can. But this emergency isn’t a life thread for you. The same comes with broken braces. Don’t try to cut a wire in your braces by yourself. You can push it until you start to feel that the wire won’t harm your mouth tissues. But you need to wait until your dentist can see you.
- Abscess: this is a severe infection that can affect the root of your tooth, and tooth decay can cause it. If you have an untreated cavity, you can expect for this to happen. This infection can spread to the rest of your body. This situation can be a red alarm, it is serious, and you must see your dentist immediately, especially if you see pus coming out of this abscess.
Dental offices in Tijuana have an emergency phone number that you can dial the day you have a problem. The issue here is that an emergency can be at any time, at any place. Even so, you can keep a number from an office, to call in case you have an emergency.
How Can I Avoid Dental Emergencies
You can’t get a magical recipe to avoid dental emergencies successfully. You can have one at any time even when you take care of your teeth.
You can’t always know it. But the best way to prevent will be having regular visits to your dentist.
During these checkups, dentists can find signs of tooth decay, damaged enamel, gums diseases, among other problems. Pain is often the main reason for patients going to a dentist.
And even when you have a daily dental cleaning routine you can still feel pain. You can feel this pain when you drink something cold or hot or even with some foods. And that means that you can have a problem.
These problems are due to a bunch of reason and the only person who can tell you what it is your dentist. Some patients are coming to Tijuana to have dental work such as dental implants or porcelain veneers. You need to have follow-ups after that kind of procedures.
Coming to the city it is not always as simple as it sounds, but a lot of patients design plans to have success. Brushing your teeth isn’t enough to prevent dental problems, you can be sure about this.
So, it is crucial for you and your family to have a schedule of your visits to the dentist. Having a calendar can help you a lot to know when is time to see your dentist again, when was the last time you had teeth cleaning or a dental filling, and the name of your dentist or dental office.
It is essential for you to keep seeing the same dentist. They can have your clinic history and know what you have in every tooth in your mouth.
You need to keep in touch with your dental office in Tijuana. Don’t worry, dentists in Tijuana don’t want to lose contact with you, so probably they will remind you that it is time to see them again for your following treatments.
