Dentist twice a year? Once? What does your family do?

[ScoutTN]

We are considering our benefit selection at DH's work and dental coverage is $$$. I'm thinking we can do $ into our FSA instead.

 

How often do you take your dc to the dentist?

What about you and your DH?

 

We want to have healthy teeth and nice smiles without being broke! :D

[gingersmom]

I have no dental insurance so my kids go once a year and I go whenever there is a problem.

 

Some years it cost me hundreds and some years thousands (root canals, etc).

 

Braces are a totally different expense (also not covered).

[kalanamak]

Hubby was raised without tooth brush and didn't start brushing until age 16, so he has a mouth full of fillings and bridges. He goes 2x a year and has had to have various bits of work, and gets a cleaning.

Kiddo goes twice a year, so far NOTHING.

I go once every 5 or 10 years when I have a problem. I have great spit and have never had to have my teeth cleaned.

[AK_Mom4]

We go twice because the insurance pays for it. If they didn't pay, we would *maybe* go once a year. Maybe once every other year. Or not at all. My kids have never had cavities, so other than a fix for a chipped tooth and 2 sets of wisdom teeth removed (so far), we have been pretty boring for the dentist.

[BamaTanya]

after we had 2 dc. We go twice a year. Dh has good strong teeth and rarely has a problem. I, otoh, often have to have a followup treatment. The dc are mixed. Our insurance covers the checkups and we want to discover problems when they're still little problems!

[SKL]

So far I haven't taken my kids to the dentist, except once to have a look at an injury. (They are 4yo and 5yo). When they have their permanent teeth for a while, I'll probably take them and if it all looks OK, we'll probably do once a year. (They are not on my dental insurance.)

 

Myself, I went 3.5 years without and then had about 4 cavities filled after a painful cleaning. I intend to mend my ways by going once a year from now on.

[MamaT]

My kids go twice a year. Dh and I go when we feel like we need to - usually every couple of years. My dh just went a couple of weeks ago, but I am trying to wait until after the new year. I had a filling fall out and I know they are going to crown that tooth. I hate going to the dentist!

[Krista in LA]

We all go twice a year religiously. I've had so many problems with my teeth that I want to make sure that my kids have healthy, beautiful smiles. They are usually told what a great job they do brushing and flossing at the dentist, even with braces on, but they have still had a few cavities. Our insurance does pay for it so I don't have to worry about that part of it.

[dirty ethel rackham]

We all go twice a year for cleanings. I usually push off xrays and only do them about half the time they recommend them. I look at this as important preventative maintenance. I have to go 2x's a year because I tend to build up tartar (even with flossing every day and brushing twice a day with a Sonicare toothbrush.) Dh needs to go twice a year because he doesn't always take the best care of his teeth.

[QueenCat]

We go twice/year. Older ds has had more cavities than younger. So far, neither child has had any major work. I've had more because even though I take great care of my teeth, soft/weak teeth run in my family. Thankfully, both children have done better than I have... For orthodontics, our insurance only pays the first $1000. That wasn't fun when we realized younger ds really needed (in no way cosmetic) braces. For everything else, our insurance pays all (anything preventive) or most of the bill.

[journeytolily]

We have insurance (though it's separate from the medical) thru DH's job, so we all go usually twice a year. If we had to pay for it, we would go MAYBE once a year, maybe less often than that, depending on what we could afford.

 

I think for most people, once a year is fine. Twice is a bit of a luxury to me!

[LibraryLover]

We are one of the lucky ones. Each member of our family gets 2 free cleanings a year per dh's complany plan (which is not costly). There is a huge range of benefits for folks in the US, and that is plain unfair and wrong.

[Hathersage]

I have to get cleanings 3-4 times a year...2 of them insurance covers.

[bettyandbob]

Once a year. No dental coverage. Never had a cavity.

[lynn]

We go twice a year since that is what is covered by our insurance.

[jennsmile]

We go twice a year. When I don't I have issues and end up needing major dental stuff instead of little fillings. My kids go twice a year as well. Dh needs to get in to a new dentist as his is terrible if you miss one appt, you never get in again it seems.

[black_midori]

The kids and I go once a year for cleanings and rarely need anything else.

 

Dh, however, is another ballgame altogether!! He goes once a year for a cleaning but SHOULD go 2-3 times. He also has dental problems fairly often and goes for them (crowns, root canals, root planings, etc) more often than I had ever thought would be the case... :)

 

If we had dental problems that indicated a need for more routine visits, we would do that. My dad is a Periodontist (gum dentist) and I worked for him for 3 years - bad bad bad things can happen as people get older or don't take good care of their teeth... blech.

[AngieW in Texas]

We go 2x/year.

[Daisy]

Our dental insurance requires us to go twice a year or our co-pays increase.

[AHASRADA]

My kids and I have always gone to the dentist 2x a year, all our lives. That is, until we lost our insurance. Now we rarely go :tongue_smilie:.

[Pretty in Pink]

We all go twice per year. I went more frequently during this last pregnancy.

[GingerPoppy]

I go once a year for a cleaning and checkup, as I have to pay out of pocket. My daughter goes once every 9 months for the same.

[nancypantsgirl]

In a perfect world where we had either lots of regular employment or insurance, we'd go twice a year. As it is, my husband works several part time jobs and I work one and we have "California Healthy Families". To put it mildly, the dentists on their provider lists look positively frightening. Some don't answer their phones. Others have horrible, horrible Yelp ratings and reviews. ((shivers)) I may bring myself to take them for a cleaning but I don't know that I would trust them even for that, the reviews are so bad.

[Mrs Mungo]

Dh is required to see the dentist twice a year, his is fully covered.

 

The rest of us have average dental insurance. The kids *generally* see the dentist once a year. It has been a little longer than 6 months right now. I go whenever I feel like I need to.

[2_girls_mommy]

Twice a year for all of us. Kiddos have not had cavities yet, knock on wood!

[2squared]

Dental insurance is $$$ and it doesn't cover much. Last year I determined that we are better off financially to pay for the dentist out-of-pocket (2 check-ups/year per person) assuming 2-3 total cavities in our family for the year. Next year with more kids getting full check-ups, we may be better off paying for the insurance.

 

I wouldn't assume that dental insurance + copays is cheaper than paying out-of-pocket.

[2squared]

So far I haven't taken my kids to the dentist, except once to have a look at an injury. (They are 4yo and 5yo). When they have their permanent teeth for a while, I'll probably take them and if it all looks OK, we'll probably do once a year. (They are not on my dental insurance.)

 

Some of my kids have had cavities at 4yo & 5yo in "baby" teeth that will be in their mouths until they are teenagers. I wouldn't discount dental needs just because the teeth aren't permanent.

[lailasmum]

My son goes every 3 to 6 months but his baby teeth came in with problems, sometimes he has been more often than that. My eldest goes about once a year. The rest of us go every couple of years.

[WiseOwlKnits]

We all go to the dentist twice a year. As soon as DS hit the age to start going to the dentist, it was the same cost to us to pay for dental insurance vs. paying for 2 cleanings a year per person it out of pocket. So we went the dental insurance route incase someone needed dental work. It turned out to be helpful since DH needed to have some dental work done this year.

[J-rap]

When we had dental insurance, we went twice/year. We haven't had it for years, however, and since then, we go about once every other year. Even then we hold off on x-rays and extras a lot of the time. Our teeth have been quite healthy, fortunately, although we have had the extra expenses of teeth pulling (so that permanent teeth have more room to grow in), wisdom teeth, and braces. I wonder how much of that would have been covered by dental insurance? Those extras do add up.

[RoughCollie]

We go to the dentist twice a year, if we can afford it. Right now, the kids have dental insurance, thank heavens.

[Heather in Neverland]

We go every six months like clockwork but we also have good dental insurance.

[*********]

Our dental insurance requires us to go twice a year or our co-pays increase.

 

We've had dental insurance all our married lives, and we all go twice a year for cleanings; the dc get x-rays once a year. Well, I go twice a year *now; I didn't go to the dentist for, um, like 15 years. Bad experience when I was 17. But even with not going for so long, I only had one big cavity and two small ones. Never had any cavities as a child, and I only went once a year then because of no insurance.

 

If we didn't have insurance, it'd probably look something like this:

 

I'd take the boys every 9 months, because they've been going twice a year and never had a problem. The dentist always says how great their teeth look. I'd have x-rays for them every other time they went, so every year and a half.

 

I'd go probably every year and a half, to be honest. I'd use not having insurance as an excuse to stretch it as faaar as possible; maybe even every two years. Yes, I dislike going to the dentist. :tongue_smilie:

 

DH would probably still go 3 to 4 times a year, as that is what he does now. He has more problems with his teeth than I do; at least, that's what his dentist has convinced him of over the last dozen years or so. (We see different dentists.)

[Jen in PA]

The kids go every six months, like clockwork, and have since they were 2 and 4. I think we have had maybe $20 in copays for them over that time period, and that includes some minor oral surgeries for DS. We have always been happy to have the extra dental insurance in place for them. DH's new dental insurance only had 2 levels to choose from, with the higher one covering orthodontia and bridgework, so now we have the lower tier for a few years.

[ScoutTN]

Dental insurance is $$$ and it doesn't cover much. Last year I determined that we are better off financially to pay for the dentist out-of-pocket (2 check-ups/year per person) assuming 2-3 total cavities in our family for the year. Next year with more kids getting full check-ups, we may be better off paying for the insurance.

 

I wouldn't assume that dental insurance + copays is cheaper than paying out-of-pocket.

 

This is why I asked! ;)

We were debating whether to cut back to 1x a year, drop the insurance and put money into our HSA for dental. But our coverage is actually very good with no copays and very low deductibles (none for preventative care).

 

But all it would take is one large dental problem - e.g. last year I had to have all 4 wisdom teeth pulled, DH had a crown the year before - and we're getting 3x what we paid it.

 

We got out our EOBs from the last several years and decided that for this year at least we'll stick with the insurance and all go 2x a year. Next year could be different....

Right now we need to build up our emergency fund and the protection against large out of pocket costs is good. The premiums are less than the cost of basic care by about $200 a year for us.

[MominIN]

The kids all go 2x a year (once they hit 3). My husband and I only go when we are having trouble. Actually, we really only go when the trouble gets unbearable.

 

We do not have any dental coverage.

[2squared]

The premiums are less than the cost of basic care by about $200 a year for us.

 

Sounds like you do have good insurance, and I would choose insurance over out-of-pocket in your situation. Our insurance costs more than the same level of out-of-pocket basic care, so it is a financial puzzle for us. We are risking the cost of major dental care, but we haven't had any surprise dental needs and our insurance covers very little anyway. Being uninsured isn't a very big risk for us. Next year, though, I can see the cost equation switching toward insurance.

[Guest PattyH]

Twice a year for the kids, but only once (or less) for us. For some reason we always take better care of the kids than ourselves.

[TravelingChris]

I am delayed right now on getting a dentist. We moved in late July and I know I need to get one so I guess I will do that this week.

 

We go twice a year except I think dh only gets it once a year. But he is AF and if Mrs. Mungo says Army gets it 2x a year and we are now at an Army base, maybe he will now get it 2x a year. Actually I have to go 3x a year since I have Sjogren's Syndrome.

 

Dental insurance has been worth it for us. We don't have co-pays on cleaning and our costs on fillings and crowns are reduced.

[Socalimom]

My dh's insurance covers twice/year, so we do go to maximize his benefits. However for dental work that's not covered, it is as needed.

[kalphs]

We are considering our benefit selection at DH's work and dental coverage is $$$. I'm thinking we can do $ into our FSA instead.

 

How often do you take your dc to the dentist?

What about you and your DH?

 

We want to have healthy teeth and nice smiles without being broke! :D

We go twice a year.

:D

[In the Rain]

Twice a year for most of us. Every 3 months or so for one dd who has issues.