In a dental clinic, patients may be able to go through sedation “for everything from invasive procedures to a simple tooth cleaning,” if they are afraid of the dentist, “have a low pain threshold,” “can’t sit still in the dentist’s chair,” “have a bad gag...
People with missing teeth could go through the restorative procedure of getting a denture, which “is a removable replacement for missing teeth and surrounding tissues,” look similar to their “natural teeth,” and is usually cheaper than dental implants (Braden; “Dental Health and Dentures” 2016, 1–2;...
After root canal treatment, ideally, people would not experience any problems. Unfortunately, other patients’ teeth might worsen months or years afterwards due to a variety of reasons—for example, patients may have “[canals] that were too narrow or curved to be treated during the initial procedure,”...
People must undergo root canal therapy “when the innermost layer of [their] tooth becomes inflamed or infected (or even in the case of dead tooth). This layer, called the pulp, contains [their] tooth’s nerves and blood vessels” (Nowak 2019). While people could just extract this...
People must go to maxillofacial surgeons for removing their wisdom teeth but removing them can be expensive (“Is wisdom tooth removal covered by health insurance?” 2017). While not everyone needs the procedure, other people’s wisdom teeth, depending on the teeth’s condition and location in the...
Some parents may not be able to pay for their children’s dental care (“Affordable Care Act and Dental Care: Children”). Even though parents do not have to get pediatric dental coverage, depending on their state, this coverage could help them pay for their children’s dental...
People can experience a variety of dental emergencies, such as toothache, “pain and swelling in [their] mouth or gums; an extruded tooth, which is a tooth that has been moved out of its normal position; a tooth that has been knocked out; or having an...
Dental insurance policies may have an alternate benefit clause, which is “a provision that helps determine how payment will be made when there are several ‘clinically accepted’ dental services that can satisfactorily correct the dental dentition” (Summerford 2013). This clause was also called the Least...
Dentists usually prescribe opioids to patients experiencing dental pain (Metro-Sanchez). While opioids help mitigate this pain, they cause the patients’ bodies to “release a hormone called dopamine. Dopamine causes [them] to feel pleasure, which could lead to addiction” (“Opioids”). Also, some side effects that patients...
Some patients may have to endure waiting periods during which they have no coverage for certain treatments after a set period of time (Araujo 2018). Dental insurance companies utilize waiting periods in order to prevent people from enrolling into their plan, using its benefits for...
