Is Your Insurance Expiring?
September 27, 2012
I don’t know how you feel but I think this year is just flying by. I guess I feel like that every year. Only three more months left in 2012. For those of you with dental insurance, only three more months to use your dental benefits before they disappear and go toward the bonuses for the insurance executives. That is kind of a joke and it is kind of not.
As you know, if you have dental insurance, you have a yearly maximum amount of money that can be used for dental care. Although that yearly maximum (typically $1000-1500 per year) has not changed for 40 years in most situations, if you don’t use the money the insurance company keeps it. That’s right, if your insurance company doesn’t write a check out for your dental care, they keep whatever you don’t use.
On that note, if you have dental work that needs to be done, now is the time to do it. The only catch is that because many patients wait until the end of the year to use their dental insurance benefits, it is often difficult to get an appointment. Therefore, those reading this column will be one step ahead of everyone else. The big rush generally occurs in the next couple of weeks so book your appointments now.
This is especially true for patients who need multiple things done. Let me use a specific example. Let’s say your dentist has told you that you need a crown on a tooth but the tooth will need work done by a periodontist or even the dreaded root canal prior to doing the crown. Getting the “pre-crown” work done at the end of this year will allow you to finish the crown in the beginning of next year and maximize your insurance benefits.
It has always seemed crazy to me that we have to play these games with dental insurance, but that’s the way it works. If you have been told that you needed some work done and haven’t done it, call your dental office or insurance carrier to see what remaining benefits you have.
Just for clarification, as this is an area that patients sometimes get confused on, your yearly maximum is yours and not your spouse’s. If you and your spouse have dental insurance and a $1000 yearly benefit, you get to use $1000 and your spouse gets to use $1000. If you go over your maximum you cannot use any of your spouse’s benefits.
For those without dental insurance – you are not missing out on too much. Yes, dental insurance is nice to have, especially if your employer is paying most or all of the premiums. However, people tend to get into the frame of mind that if they do not have dental insurance they can’t go to the dentist.
I had a patient in just yesterday that had not been in for 5 years because he said he did not have insurance. Five years later the patient needs more work done than the insurance benefits will cover. It’s not worth it.
One thing is for certain, regardless of whether you have insurance or not, regular visits to a dentist is the key. If your goal is health you can’t do it alone. If the cost, or the fact you don’t have dental insurance is what is holding you back, talk with an office that offers financial arrangements that work for you. The longer you stay away the more difficult it is to catch up.
Have a great autumn. Beat the rush and schedule those appointments.
Routine Change
September 10, 2012
Summer is unofficially over with the passing of Labor Day. For many, especially those heading back to school, this means a change from the summer routine. One of the routines I changed this past summer is to read more outside of my typical dental journals. The latest book I read was the revised edition of “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to change their routine to make positive improvements in their life.
We all have our own routines. Routines are important for both mental and physical health. Some think my daily routine is crazy, but if you look at them, most people’s daily routines look crazy to others. In “The Slight Edge” the author discusses that change or improvement in our lives comes one day at a time. It is the small decisions that we make daily, that we often consider insignificant, which mold who we are.
When our routines are broken by a vacation or lack of motivation, it is always difficult to get back into it. I’m sure you can relate. I am always thinking of different ways to change my routine to spend more time with my family, eat healthier, and have more “free” time. Changing routines is probably one of the hardest things to do. However, changing routines is probably one of the most important things to do. Striving for improvement in our lives by changing our routine usually improves the quality of life.
Going to the dentist is a routine. It is not part of your daily routine but it should be part of your overall routine for staying healthy. One of the biggest challenges I see in the practice of dentistry is changing people’s routines.
When someone comes into my office with a problem and has not seen a dentist for one, five, ten, or twenty years, it is easy for me to “fix” the problem they are having and get them back to a comfortable state. That comfortable state however, does not necessarily mean health. That comfortable state usually means status quo, which often times translates into the fact that there are other problems brewing, just waiting to become a crisis. The thing that is not easy to do, for any dentist, is to get those people to come back – to change their routine.
For some people it is financial, but for the vast majority it is the lack of pain or lack of concern. Regardless of the reason, it always comes back to changing routines. Our priorities dictate our routines. Priorities need change just as much as routines. If our priorities include health, we will spend money on a gym membership or home fitness equipment, go to the doctor or dentist on a regular basis, and eat things that are healthy. If the lack of pain is the reason you don’t exercise or frequent the doctor or dentist, it can lead to everything from the loss of teeth to the loss of life. If long-standing hypertension could have been controlled by regular exercise and/or medication doesn’t that beat an early heart attack? If long-standing periodontal disease, which doesn’t hurt and 75% of the population has some form of, could have been controlled by regular visits to the dentist, doesn’t that beat losing your teeth?
Changing your routine to improve your quality of life is worth every penny you may spend on it. As Jeff Olson says in his book, “You can’t change the past. You can change the future. The right choices you make today, compounded over time, will take you higher and higher up the success curve of this real-time movie called ‘your life’.”
Feel Good
September 4, 2012
Last week I was on vacation. There are many definitions of vacation but the first one I found when I looked up the definition is – “a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel.” I think that is a fairly good definition but for me it is missing one key point.
Most of us look forward to vacation. For some it might be a time to relax or “unwind” or maybe sleep in and be lazy. For others, like myself, I look at it as having time to do things I love to do or to put it a different way – things that I am passionate about.
I know what you are thinking – but you are a dentist….aren’t you passionate about that? I have been a dentist for 18 years and there is no doubt that I love what I do. The fact of the matter is, it is difficult to stay interested in anything without growth. I take a lot of continuing education in dentistry to continue to learn and grow in my profession. However, like most people, I have interests outside of work that I look forward to during vacation.
Every weekend is a vacation. I look at it that way because I always want to have a “vacation” to look forward to. Whether we are working or we are in school, we all look forward to time away from our daily routine. Having said that, whether it is a weekend or a longer vacation, I get up at the same time, generally go to sleep at the same time, and I exercise, which is all part of my daily routine. For me that is important because it allows me to spend the same amount of time doing some of the other things that I am passionate about.
So, what’s the key point that I think is missing from that definition of vacation? I think it should include the idea that we want to do things that make us feel good. If you aren’t feeling good you are feeling bad. If you feel bad you are not growing, and if you are not growing you are going in the other direction, which is not good!
While I love what I do on a day-to-day basis during the week, I am passionate about learning. I like to learn and grow in my profession but I like learning in general. I believe that is the key to growth and feeling good.
My father is a good example of this. He has been a veterinarian for 50 years! That is a long time to do the same thing. He still loves what he does, although he does it a lot less these days, but he always learning….not just about veterinary medicine but about other things that he is passionate about. At 75 years old he is still learning and growing.
I had a patient in the other day who is truly passionate about bike riding. While that is not his profession, it is obvious that he loves bike riding and is constantly striving for improvement and growth. Bike riding for him makes him feel good. And that is the key point – when you feel good you are happy and we all want to be happy.
There are things that we have to do in our day-to-day lives that don’t necessarily make us feel good. Many of those things cannot be avoided. However, in general, we should try to avoid those things that do not make us feel good. For example, I do not watch the news very often any more. If you watch the news on a regular basis I would bet you know why.
So, if you find yourself not as happy as you would like to be, stop and write down a list of the things that bring joy to your life. Make time to do more of those things, or even just one. Pick something that you want to learn more about and “grow” with it. I truly believe that happiness is a choice.
