Stop Ignoring Your Dental Benefit
- Al Lewis
- 14 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Yes, we know it doesn’t cost you much money because the annual dental cap (no pun intended)(but if we had, it would be a good one) is often lower than the annual medical deductible.
But that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. Quite the contrary. If there is an entire profession devoted to one teeny-weeny body part that in total comprises about 0.04% of your total weight, it must be important, right? Perhaps those 200,000 dentists are onto something?
We have a new major hazard of inadequate dental education/hygiene to report. But first, you need to read through our 30-second shameless (but totally justified) plug for Quizzify:
Quizzify is the single most important source of dental information you can find anywhere.
Don't believe us? Try searching online for any authoritative source regarding your teeth. There’s no Harvard Medical School, no Mayo Clinic, no Johns Hopkins. There’s not even a WebMD or Healthline. All you will see is a random assortment of dental practices that paid for placement or knew how to use keywords.
Further, you don’t know what you don’t know, teethwise. Like did you know that:
GLP-1s, Ambien, blood pressure medications, and even Tylenol PM can cause cavities?
Until a few years ago, Colgate contained an EPA-registered pesticide?
Tooth-whitening erodes your enamel?
One of those previous three items is totally made up?
And those aren’t even the most important things you and your employees don’t know about dentistry.
That brings us to the three Greatest Hits of Quizzify for dental. The third, as mentioned, is new to Quizzify’s blogosphere, though it has appeared many times in quizzes.
#1: Silver Diamine Fluoride (SDF) for Cavities
Filling cavities is the most commonly performed clinical procedure in the country…and is also the most commonly performed inappropriate procedure in the country. Most cavities don’t need to be filled, assuming they get noticed before they get too deep. The dentist can just paint on SDF. SDF “arrests” the cavity so it doesn’t go any further.
I now have it applied to two teeth. I wrote about the first tooth in “Great News. I Got a Cavity.” The second time, it quite literally avoided an extraction. That required several treatments, not surprisingly. Even so, the bill was less than $150.
We teach employees to ask for it because dentists won’t generally offer it – for the simple reason that it doesn’t cost you anything much. Hence they don’t make anything much. Here is my own EOB for the first:
I paid less for this uncovered treatment out-of-pocket than the 50% of a filling I would have paid as a covered benefit. I sent my wife's employer all sorts of reasons to cover this for everyone, but they never even responded. (I won’t mention its name, but it rhymes with Coston Bollege.)
On the other hand, SDF is so popular among Quizzi-fans that about half our testimonials are about it. (“Real Quotes from Real People with Real Names.”)
#2: Don’t Limit People to Two Cleanings
If you cover more visits to (for example) the chiropractor, people will make more visits to the chiropractor, whether they need them or not. (SPOILER ALERT: Most don’t.)
The same is not true for dental. No one is going to get their teeth cleaned more than they need to because they can.
While some people need only one cleaning a year, others need three or four. Examples of the latter: Smokers, diabetics, people with extensive dental work, or people taking medicines that cause dry mouth – such as the aforementioned list (and that is only a sampling)
#3: The Dental-Medical Connection
Where to start? Well, first, I myself had an abscess that I wouldn’t have gotten timely treatment for, if not for this Quizzify question:
Why would I have passed on treatment? Because my dentist insisted it wasn’t an abscess. (No names but rhymes with Dewton Nental Associates.) The whole tale of woe is here. It's actually pretty funny if it's not your tooth. Fortunately, Quizzify teaches people that medical professionals are not always right and that one must advocate for oneself.
Ironically, Boston College (oops, Coston Bollege) has an advocacy program, from an outfit called Knova Solutions (oops, Sova Knolutions) that I tried to use once to advocate for an earlier appointment for another very acute issue that I couldn’t get seen for in a timely way.
They said they didn’t do that kind of advocacy. I asked them: “Do you even know what patient advocacy is? I don’t think you do. ‘Cuz if you did, I’d have a doctor’s appointment by now.” OK, so I didn’t say that, but that’s what I was thinking. (They billed the carrier for a "year of service" anyway, based on that one conversation.)
Fortunately, I didn't ask them about this one. I would have gotten that same answer. Had I relied on them or my dentist, the abscess would have burst into my jaw. I would have been looking at probably $50,000 worth of surgery and recovery, much of which would have been paid for by Coston Bollege because at that point I am in the ER and hospital.
Along with dental complications leading directly to medical complications as in that scenario, there are also many distinctly medical conditions that can be caused or exacerbated by tooth decay or receding gums, including:
· Diabetes
· Dementia
