Like many dental practices today, our office sends an email request for patients to leave comments about their visit to our office. Most comments are positive, for which we are grateful. However, all comments are helpful to the business to understand what patients are thinking. If one person is thinking it, most likely there are others.

We received the following comment on our website from a patient who was in to see one of our hygienists:

“My hygienist is always very pleasant, conversational and professional in her services. However, I can do without the constant sales pitch to buy an electric toothbrush from your office. There is no evidence that an electric is any better… (Read More)

November is almost over! It’s crunch time to get everything done that we haven’t gotten done during the rest of the year. For those with remaining dental benefits, it’s also the time of year to consider utilizing those so you don’t lose them.
Unused dental benefits go directly back to the insurance company, which generates hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for the insurance companies each year. Dental insurance companies count on the fact that many people will not claim their $1000 or so in benefits by the end of the calendar year. Those with dental benefits should look for legitimate means to use these benefits before they are lost.

For example, perhaps… (Read More)

Last week I discussed the role and effect that diabetes has on oral health. It is not something that should be taken lightly. If you missed this column, please visit the website at the end of this column or e-mail me directly and I will send you a copy.

After reading last week’s column, it may seem frightening that there is no way out of the partnership of horrors between diabetes and severe gum disease. There are solutions. Just as poor oral health can compound a diabetic’s situation, proper oral health can come to the rescue.

Clinical studies confirm that treatment of gum disease reduces oral inflammation, which removes the factor that triggers the body’s… (Read More)

After the election, and the dust has settled, I will report back on what the results of Question 2 will mean for you.
With more than 24 million diabetics and 57 million pre-diabetics in the United States, nearly a quarter of the nation’s population, the connections between dental health and diabetes have never been more critical.

As an indication of our general health, the rapidly rising rate of diabetes should be ringing alarm bells everywhere. The litany of health implications from diabetes is a long and grisly list. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. That is probably vastly understated, because as many as 65% of deaths from diabetes are… (Read More)

If you did not catch Part 1 of this column last week, you can read it at www.towncommonmedia.com.

As I explained last week, dental insurance is not really insurance. All plans available are dental benefit plans, intended to cover basic services. True insurance covers loss and damage. Dental insurance was set up like this in the 1970’s and has not changed. While premiums have increased, the percentage paid out by these companies has decreased significantly. Ballot Question 2 does not change the general structure of dental plans, unfortunately, but takes aim at the amount of money companies collect vs. the amount they pay out for direct patient care.

Taken directly from the Mass.gov website:

“This… (Read More)

As a general rule, the team at my office is discouraged from using the word “insurance”, because dental insurance is not really insurance. They are dental benefits. True insurance covers loss and damage.

I offer medical insurance to my team as all small businesses do in Massachusetts. A family plan in my office costs $2600 per month. A single person is $900 per month. That includes a $2000 deductible per person as well. Said a different way, $33,200 or $12,800 respectively, is paid out by the patient before the insurance company pays towards anything. When I was growing up, this was called catastrophic insurance; you weren’t covered for the minor stuff, but if you needed… (Read More)

If you have read these columns in the past, you have seen me write about periodontal (gum) health and its relationship to systemic health. There is a slew of scientific evidence that poor periodontal health is not good for you systemically. It has been linked to heart disease, stroke, low birth weight babies, diabetes and more.

Gum tissue health is an easy thing for patients to be lax about, or even ignore. Why? The main reason is that gum problems do not hurt, unless they are so severe that tooth loss is inevitable. It is the chronic inflammation in the gum tissue, regardless of whether it hurts or not, that has the potential to affect… (Read More)

I attended a continuing education course a while back entitled “Hit Man or Healer?” The course was given by a well-known leader in the dental profession. The basic premise of the course was the notion that we have a lot more science, studies and data available today to be able to make better decisions about the treatment that we dentists recommend to patients. The concept is called evidence-based dentistry.

The idea is that if a very structured examination and diagnosis is done, treatment recommendations can be made based on science. The problem is, all too often the diagnosis leads to suggestions that without the proper dialogue can make the dentist look like a “hit man”… (Read More)

There are five major reasons that people do not get the necessary dental care they need; six if you count the recent pandemic. The other five are money, time, lack of concern, fear and trust. Let’s take a quick look at each one and see if any of them fit you, and what dentists often try to do to overcome these obstacles for patients.

Although you may think that money would be the number one reason people avoid ideal dental treatment, it is not. Even in tougher economic times, money, although a significant barrier for many, is still not the number one issue for most. Dental health, and good health in general, always requires some kind… (Read More)