Dental care can be classified in different ways. One of these classifications is preventive care vs. corrective care.
Due to the increase in price of dental care in the United States, many people are neglecting to obtain the preventive care that they need. This includes visits to the dentist, correcting teeth alignment, eliminating plaque, and detecting hidden issues, among others.
Preventive care is done when the patient doesn’t have symptoms or doesn’t feel bad. There is no sense of urgency for preventive care, and that’s why it’s often relegated to the list of things that people “will get around to” someday.
Unfortunately, the reason preventive care is so important is precisely so that we don’t develop serious dental problems that require corrective care.
In the case of dental problems, the most common symptom is tooth pain. Unlike other types of pain, tooth pain is relentless, piercing, and intense. When you get tooth pain, you’ll be willing to do just about anything to get rid of it. You may contact the first dentist you can, which might not be your regular, trusted dentist. You will accept any treatment. And perhaps as importantly, you’ll be willing to pay any price for the treatment, and in some cases, this might mean using money that you had allocated for other purposes, taking out some of your savings, or going into debt.
This is why the lower cost of preventive care is important. Not only does preventive care allow people to save money, but also to avoid painful, stressful, and frustrating situations.
Many Americans believe that nobody travels to Costa Rica for preventive treatment, but that’s far from the truth. Some patients who are happy with their Costa Rican dentist come back to get their six month or yearly visit to the dentist. Patients who come for a complex procedure, such as dental implants, often bring their relatives along for preventive care. And finally, there are some patients who come to enjoy the museums, colonial cities, beautiful beaches and other cultural and natural attractions that Costa Rica has to offer… and then have some preventive dental care before they go home.
If you are interested in preventive dental care in Costa Rica, please fill out the “Help me Find a Dentist” form. A participating dental specialist will reply to your needs.