The Fact is: Medicare does not cover dental care

| September 4, 2010

Medicare_Dental_CoverageWe had a Grandview area new patient call us the other day wanting to know if we accepted her Medicare Insurance.   We explained to her that Medicare doesn’t cover dental care and can only be used for a handful of dental related surgeries in a hospital setting.  She kept insisting that we accept her Medicare Insurance for dental care  that I decided to do a little investigation to make sure I was giving out the correct information.

The result of the fact finding mission:  Medicare will pay for medical care only. So, I called the prospective new patient back, explain to her what I had learned and guess what? She decided to schedule because she needed a dentist and was impressed by the time I had taken to explain things to her.  She had never gotten that much care and information from a Dr’s office.

But, you can still go to the dentist even without insurance.  Average annual cost for dental  cleanings, xrays, and exams at a Columbus dentist is less than $1 per day.  (that’s for 2 cleanings per year too!)

There are many benefits of going to the dentist with or without dental insurance especially as we get older.

  1. Save your teeth! No one wants dentures.
  2. Getting regular dental care keeps dental costs low.  Regular check-ups by a dentist prevents big problems with your teeth from developing.
  3. Oral cancer screening.  Only a dentist can do this.  Caught early, the survival rate for oral canceris 80 – 90%
  4. Helps with your brushing habits and make sure you keep on track so you can have your teeth for life!
  5. Certain medications and treatments cause dry mouth which can accelerate decay in your mouth to alarming levels.  A dentist can monitor your situation and provide certain treatments to help control dry mouth.

Do you have a question about dentistry?  Send us an email and we will do our best to get you the answer.