Cutting The Cost Of Oral Hygiene & Care
Keep The Cost Of Personal Oral Care As Manageable As Possible
The cost of living crisis will impact everybody in some way, shape or form. Certain aspects of life, like dental health, have to be maintained and so, cutting out the basics of your oral health and hygiene is not really an option.
However, there are ways to help minimise the costs, and to prevent larger dental bills too. At Abbey Road Dental, we are here to help you to maintain your oral health at a time when everything feels squeezed, starting with these essential tips for cutting the cost of oral hygiene and care:
Prevention Is Key
Of all the tips that we can give you to save yourself pain, money and time, it is with prevention. Our team is passionate about preventative dentistry, because it helps you to enjoy a healthy smile hopefully for life. By taking care of your teeth as well as you can, with brushing for two minutes a day twice a day, flossing and regular oral checkups in St John’s Wood, you save yourself a lot of potential treatment costs.
Even with our competitive treatment costs, treatments like fillings and root canal therapy still cost money, and they are mostly preventable. Of course, life happens, accidents happen, infections happen, but with the best oral care they can be largely avoided. This is particularly true when it comes to your checkups with us, because we can spot potential issues early on, often a little oral care advice will prevent any further problems. If there is a problem, we can diagnose early, so ensuring the treatment is as minimal as possible, for the lowest amount of discomfort, time in the chair and overall costs.
Turn Off The Tap
Lots of us turn on the tap from the moment we go into the bathroom to brush our teeth, and then leave it running for the entirety of our oral hygiene regime. By turning the water off unless you’re rinsing your brush, you can save money and do your bit to be more eco-friendly too. It’s not a huge saving, but every little really does help at the moment so it’s worth adding to your efforts.
Try More Affordable Brands
Do you get stuck on more expensive oral hygiene brands without considering more affordable options? Your oral health is certainly worth investing in, but sometimes we get stuck in a routine and don’t consider the savings possible by changing the brand of brush or dental products we use. As long as the product is proven, safe and effective, it doesn’t need to be the most expensive brand – it just has to work for you. We’re more than happy to speak to you about this at your next appointment, or recommend products for you to try if you would find that helpful. Our hygienist appointments are particularly good for chatting about oral health products – our hygienists are experienced with this topic and on helping you to maintain a great oral health regime.
Avoid Overseas Dental Work
One of the best ways to avoid lots of pain and potential costs is to avoid getting overseas dental work. Of course there are reputable dentists overseas, but it can be very hard to check, and there are some really difficult cases of patients going abroad for dental work and sustaining a lot of painful damage to their teeth and gums. It’s not worth the risk, even with the potential savings. If you’d love a new smile and want cosmetic work, use an experienced, safe and professional clinic like Abbey Road Dental and spread the cost of the work. We offer 0% finance on a range of treatment plans, so please do discuss this with us if you’d love a new smile without the full payment needed upfront.
Consider An Electric Toothbrush
Electric toothbrushes are more expensive upfront than a cheap disposable one. However, long-term it can be more cost effective to use an electric toothbrush. This is because replacement heads can be really high quality and reasonably priced, and because the standard of brushing you get from an electric toothbrush is generally higher than with a manual. So you are not only potentially saving money on replacement toothbrushes, but on treatments and oral care you may need because of inadequate brushing.
Quit Smoking
Smoking itself is really expensive, so quitting that will save you money before you consider any further benefits. When it comes to your oral health, smoking is also detrimental to your teeth and gums. It stains the teeth, it reduces blood flow to the gums and soft tissues, it dries out the mouth and it can make you more prone to gum disease. You’re also less able to fight off infections in the mouth when you’re a smoker. For healthier teeth and gums, and to avoid expensive treatments to restore your oral health, consider quitting smoking.
Eat A Healthy Diet
A healthy diet is a method of prevention when it comes to your oral health. It prevents infection and disease by flooding your bloodstream with nutrients. It also helps you to naturally clean your teeth, because foods like carrots, kale and apples help remove food debris and don’t stick to the teeth like starchy carbs do. As staying hydrated is also part of a healthy diet, it will also help with your oral health by rinsing away food debris and preventing dry mouth, which contributes to tooth decay.
Never DIY It
There are DIY options available for your teeth that might seem like a good idea, but they can cause painful and costly damage to your teeth and gums. This is especially true with temporary filling kits and DIY teeth whitening kits from the internet. Please speak to us about treatment plans and our 0% finance options rather than opting for dangerous DIY kits.
Floss
Flossing is a preventative that isn’t as widely talked about in the UK as in other countries, despite it being essential for good oral care regimes. What it does is remove the debris from between the teeth, where the brush doesn’t reach. It also disturbs the bacteria from below the gum line, helping to prevent, or manage active gum disease. It’s essentially another tool in your armoury against painful, costly dental disease.
If you don’t know how to floss, ask your NW8 hygienist at your next appointment for tips and tricks.
Abbey Road Dental Is Here To Help!
If you would like to discuss our 0% finance options, preventative care tips or affordable product recommendations, please speak to us at your next appointment here in St John’s Wood.
We’re here to help you maintain good oral health during this challenging time. Just call us on 02076241603 and we will be more than happy to help you with your queries, or to book your next appointment with us.