Five Money-Saving Tips From Your Dentist

If a retired dentist could give you five tips to save money, this is what he'd say.

If your dentist was to retire and settle for the easy life as a Foolish personal finance writer (don't tell my editor I said that) he might write five money-saving tips like this:

1. Good oral hygiene
Ultimately, to save the most money you should brush your teeth properly twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and cut down on sugary foods and drinks. Also, flossing should reduce the amount of work your dentist has to do, which should save money whilst making your breath fresher. Take pity on us poor dentists!

2. Get a second opinion
One of my colleagues (Er, that'd be me. That is, Neil Faulkner the real writer, not the hypothetical dentist. Bugger, this is getting confusing already.) visited a dentist who said he needed two fillings and two teeth removed, but another dentist said he didn't need any work done at all! From what I hear, this does happen from time to time. So if you visit a new dentist for a checkup and you're told you need fillings, consider getting a second opinion.

3. Visit your dentist regularly
It's not a pleasant task, but if you catch problems early, it's not likely to cost as much to fix. A dentist may be able to spot potential complications. It may still cost a fair bit to fix, but probably not as much as waiting for it to get painful!

4. NHS vs. private
The worst kind of dentist has mad hair, a maniacal laugh and a shoulder holster for his drill, for quick-draw drilling. (Sorry, a little bit of dentist in-joking there. You've got to have a black sense of humour in this job.) As long as you don't get a dentist like this, it's not too important whether you're private or NHS. Peace of mind over price, I say!

The advantage of using an NHS dentist is that it's cheaper, but it's getting harder to find one. 1,600 dentists left the NHS between the end of March and the end of June, according to the Information Centre for health and social care (IC). That's 8% of the NHS dentists gone in just three months!

5. Watch (out) for dental trials
Every once in a while, volunteers are needed to test various new procedures. If you need some dental work done, you could look around for and submit yourself to clinical trials. For example, recently the UCL was paying people to have their impacted third molars removed! As it needs to be done anyway, it's worth considering. However, this particular test was to find out how effective certain anaesthtics are, so you may want to back away slowly, or turn and run for cover, depending on how squeamish you are. Mwahahaha!

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