Baby Boomers are facing choices in their dental health that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Everyone wants to look better, feel better, and live longer. The most pressing issue they face is aging teeth and old dentistry that is wearing out. Lets look at history in 1900 life expectancy was 47yrs, today it’s 88 yrs. Our parents and their parents usually had no teeth by the time they were 40, now Boomers have teeth and want to keep them until they are 90 or 100. This is the the whole healthcare challenge, How do we help patients keep healthy and with teeth for double that of the previous generation. Answer: It will take a Smile Makeover. Think of it like getting a getting a new knee, a new hip, heart by-pass etc, and improving lifestyle to stay vigorous and healthy . For too long, the Boomers have for the most part not faced their dental issues and/or their dentists have not had the “hotzbah” or knowledge to present comprehensive dentistry. More often than not, the cheapest route was chosen that merely put off the inevitable. Lets think though, wouldn’t it have been better to deal with mid-life dentistry when Boomers were in their 40’s or 50’s than in the 60’s or 70’s when one is retired, has more health issues and less able to proceed with treatment. Occlusal Disease, Gum Disease and Aging teeth are the main reasons for tooth loss to this group of 45 million individuals. According to Dr. John Heimke, “the ability to maintain health through the prevention and treatment of oral disease is an important element of Total Body Wellness. The Surgeon General’s Study on Oral Health connects oral health and systemic age-related diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, skin aging, and some cancers . Research confirms that oral disease is directly connected to many other systemic illnesses, including respiratory diseases, osteoporosis, and heart conditions. In fact, gum disease increases the risk of heart attack by ten fold; far worse than high cholesterol. Periodontal bacteria, which can enter the blood stream and begin new infections in major organs, may increase the risk of stroke, or even of a woman having preterm low-birth weight babies. If that doesn’t scare you, it should. Gum disease, a low grade chronic inflammation, remains epidemic, affecting eighty-five percent or more of the adult population in the United States.” In summary, what goes on in your mouth can affect the rest of your body, and what goes on in the rest of your body can have an effect on your mouth.
It is a fact that modern dentistry has had much success in saving teeth, so they are present as we age as compared to our mothers , fathers and our grandparents who had no teeth and dentures by the time they were 40 or 50. Dr. Heimke stresses ,”All dentistry is elective. You can live a long life without teeth and millions of people in the rest of the world do so.” Now though, most Boomers will need to make important decisions if they want to keep their teeth until they pass or go with no teeth? Most decisions are based on cost, out of pocket expense and pain. Any definitive dental care is so beyond what benefits the vast majority of dental insurance plans provide, that Dental insurance really has become a non-issue. The good news is that most patients can at least afford a mid life Dental reconstruction or can make affordable payments, the costs even for a full mouth rebuild is about that of a mid-sized Car. Comprehensive Dentistry/ Smile Makeover cost when broken down over time is a bargain any way you look at it is a real “no-brainer , cost benefit wise.
The absolute best news is Comprehensive Dentistry/Smile Makeover Dentistry provides long term predictable results, that improve Function, Aesthetics and Health and can be done in a few hours to a few Days with immediate results.