Great brushers can still have dental problems
It’s a well-known fact within the dentistry industry that even patients with excellent home dental care can develop severe gum disease over time. Even if you are an excellent brusher and flosser, at some point plaque is bound to slip under your gums into places your toothbrush can’t reach. Once there, the plaque will eventually harden into tartar, a rock-hard substance that no mere toothbrush can destroy.
If you spend years without seeing a professional dentist, your tartar will gradually build beneath your gums and cause gingivitis, gum disease, or even tooth decay. Ignoring small, fixable issues for years will impact your overall dental health—no matter how well you practice daily dental hygiene.
You might have a cavity—right now
A minor cavity can turn into a major problem if it’s left untreated—and if you haven’t seen the dentist in a while, you might already have one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 27% of U.S. adults aged 20 to 44 have untreated cavities, mostly due to a diet high in sugars and high-fructose corn syrup.
When a cavity is ignored, what might have once required a simple filling can require a root canal or even a tooth extraction. Though an out-of-pocket dentist appointment can be expensive, it’s certainly not as costly as an invasive procedure—which can run in the thousands of dollars.
Remember that tartar buildup we talked about? Having that taken care of isn’t cheap, either. A deep cleaning for tartar buildup may require local anesthesia and antibiotics, and can cost many times the price of a regular cleaning. A regular dental exam, on the other hand, costs about $100-$200, and can uncover small problems before they grow in size—and cost.
