Don’t Let Insurance Companies Dictate Your Child’s Dental Care

Ever since I can remember being in practice, I was always concerned about great quality of work for my patients. No dental work lasts forever (yet), but my goal was to be retired before any of my work needed replacing.

Don’t you wish all dentists had that goal, especially when working on your child? Long-term thinking in your child’s dental care is paramount, and yet some just think, “Oh, they’re baby teeth so they don’t really matter.”

If you hang around this blog long enough you’ll see how that can be disastrous thinking.

So what is the driving factor for who does dental work on your precious child? Is it price? Is it quality of work and materials? Is it a bit of both?

We all want the best quality for the lowest possible price. Do you think that’s what your dental insurance company wants?

When you buy a TV or a car or anything built on a factory line, all the products have the same quality, or at least as close as humanly robotically possible.

But when it comes to having someone build a deck on the back of your house, or even build the whole house, then WHO does the work matters very much. They have to have great skills and judgment. Judgment not only of the use of materials, but of the quality of those materials too. To get the greatest value, one has to use the best materials with great skills.

If they mess up a house, it might be messy and costly, but you can buy another one. You can buy a do-over.

If you mess up a human (dentally speaking), there are often no do-overs. In fact, it’s possible that an unwise dentist using the cheapest materials can harm your child for life.

My advice on dental care, therefore, is that you find the wisest dentist who uses the best materials that you can possibly afford. I’m NOT saying go for the highest price because they don’t always correlate. I’m saying find the best dental office for your child and pay them whatever they ask. You’re child’s lifelong dental health depends on it.

I’m also saying you’re going to have to go with your maternal/paternal instincts when choosing dental care and don’t cheap out by only doing what your insurance company will cover. Do the wisest thing for your child, even if it costs you more than what your insurance company will cover.

I include this video for thought. It is NOT meant to be a political statement. It is to help you form your own opinions about your insurance company. If you substitute “insurance company” for “government” while you watch the video, then this post will hit its intended mark. Always think like, and be, a first party payer. You’ll know what I mean by that when you watch the video.