<p>My daughter is a junior in college now, and while I was on the phone with her the other day, she mentioned that she just went to the dentist for the first time since she left for college… 3 years ago! I’m in Maryland, and she’s in Washington State, and I rarely get to see her. She’s had jobs up there over the summer, so she doesn’t come for extended periods of time. Anyway, these 3 years of not going to the dentist led to her having 8 cavities! WHAT!? Worse than that, 2 of the cavities are so deep that she needs ROOT CANALS on them! My 21 year old daughter needs 2 root canals and 6 fillings! Thank goodness she’s still under our insurance! This’ll be a big bill! </p>
<p>The reason she even thought about going to the dentist was because she was feeling severe pain in one of the teeth that now requires a root canal. I’ve never even had a root canal! We don’t have the best dental insurance, so she’s going to have to settle for 2 silver crowns after the root canals and 6 silver fillings for the other cavities. </p>
<p>Do you college students develop cavities while away at college? I hope this teaches her to regularly visit the dentist… She’ll be there a few more times, no doubt! Do your college students go to the dentist while away? Advice for my daughter and I on this matter?</p>
<p>My daughter goes to the dentist when she comes home on breaks. Believe it or not, often that is the only reason she comes home on breaks. Does she have school insurance? In our case the college plan covers dental care at a variety of providers and also at an on campus clinic. But I’m sure she’s not alone. Many, many young people just don’t even think to go until something hurts.</p>
<p>Some kids and adults are more susceptible to tooth decay than others. Encourage her to floss nightly… I bet ^^^“Flossy”^^^ flosses nightly! The combination of using a water pic, flossing, and then brushing with an electric toothbrush is a great combo at bedtime. She should definitely see a dentist every 6 months for her routine cleanings.</p>
<p>Good one! Actually I have a mouth full of crowns and a couple of root canals because as a kid I did not. I do now. Oh, and my crowns are very pretty. But expensive!</p>
<p>Mine had carefully scheduled dental visits when home. My teeth are terrible, and I have always emphasized regular care. Offspring had a few cavities, but as they have sealants and know about hygiene, not too bad. </p>
<p>My dental insurance does cover nationwide, if not worldwide visits. However, have had a rough time getting them to find and go to a new dentist while away, given scheduling and transportation difficulties.</p>
<p>You might check to see what your annual limit is. I think our dental coverage is pretty decent, but major work like she’s about to get would definitely put us over our limit and we’d have to pay out-of pocket for the remainder. Just saying this so you’re not more surprised than you are now.</p>
<p>Due to cleft palate/lip I’ve had LOTs of dental work (and awesome reconstructive surgery as a young child) over the years and do not take it for granted. I think my kids learned to value this kind of care from me, over the years, and to this day, are pretty responsible with their regular cleanings and/or whatever else they need to get done to maintain their oral health. Perhaps you should find an article online showing the correlation between good oral health and good cardiovascular health over a lifetime, and show it to your daughter. It really isn’t something to be taken for granted, for many reasons.</p>
<p>Does she have time to get a second opinion? Perhaps she’ll be home over Thanksgiving and your local dentist could squeeze her in?</p>
<p>Here’s why I ask. When I was 25, I signed up for a dental insurance policy and went to one of the covered dentists, that I picked out based on proximity and participation in the plan. I went to see him and he insisted I needed my wisdom teeth out, and scheduled the procedure for about a week before my wedding was to take place. </p>
<p>Fortunately, I was living with my parents at the time and they got wind of this and thought it was insane. They arranged for me to see their dentist, who said I did NOT need my wisdom teeth out (I still have them, more than 25 years later) and agreed that it was madness to schedule dental surgery a week before the wedding anyhow.</p>
<p>Sadly, some dentists are unscrupulous with respect to the treatments they recommend. </p>
<p>If your daughter had a history of having many cavities, then several in one visit after 3 years without an exam doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility. If not, it is surprising, isn’t it? </p>
<p>P.S., I actually went 12 years without a dentist visit and had no cavities when I finally came in out of the cold. It isn’t the exams that prevent cavities. It is one’s own oral makeup–the strength of one’s teeth, makeup of saliva, etc. I’m not a paragon of oral hygiene; I just have what were called “extraordinarily hard teeth.”</p>
<p>The same sort of thing happened to my son when he was in graduate school. He put off going to the dentist for a couple of years, and when he finally got there, he needed such extensive work that he maxed out his dental insurance and had to pay for a lot of it out of pocket. Graduate students don’t have deep pockets.</p>
<p>The problem with putting off dental work is that little cavities grow into big ones, and big ones may require much more expensive repair work – such as root canals and crowns – rather than (relatively) cheap fillings. </p>
<p>Admittedly, not everyone who goes without dental care for a few years will have this experience. But some people, like my son, have lousy teeth. They really do need to see a dentist every 6 months and get any problems detected at their checkups taken care of right away.</p>
<p>If your daughter hasn’t had all the dental work yet, you might ask her to speak with the dental office about whether some of it could be safely postponed until early 2014. She’s less likely to max out on her coverage for either 2013 or 2014 if she can split the work between the two years.</p>
<p>D1 had one root canal done today. While she was under our care, she had regular cleaning and check ups, and she rarely had any cavity. Now she is on her own, she has kind of let herself go because of work, and that’s for another thread. That one root canal with cap cost us over 5000. Our insurance only covered 2500. If I were you, I would tell your D to get a second opinion to make sure she needs all that dental work done.</p>
<p>I had cavities while in elementary school.
So, yes, they can happen any time.
And, yes, root canals (at least where I live) are extremely expensive.</p>
<p>DH is a dentist and has said that college students and young adults often neglect regular dental screenings and are shocked by the number of cavities they end up having. When they lived at home, mom usually made sure they saw the dentist regularly. Also, that’s a prime age group for drinking alot of soda, sports drinks, and eating junk food, all of which are not good for their teeth.</p>
<p>To somehow develop 8 cavities and require the root canals in 3 years takes a lot more than not seeing a dentist - it means she’s not taking care of her teeth herself very well either and in combo with some of the eating habits of some college students (sugar, sugar, sugar), it can be a double wammy. One doesn’t generally need to see a dentist frequently to avoid cavities - they need to take care of their teeth with frequent ‘effective’ brushing and with flossing and being aware of what the sugar can do to the teeth if not brushed frequently. Whatever she does about the dentist - she really needs to review her teeth care habits.</p>
<p>I agree with the other poster that she might want to get another opinion if she really feels that this new dentist may not be accurate in the assessment but the fact that she went to the dentist due to the tooth pain means she has an actual problem for sure.</p>
<p>What my kid does while on the other side of the country at college - she schedules appointments at her dentist (and any other doctor) here for when she does come home on a break (which is maybe a couple times per year). This usually means spending a part of the break in a not so pleasant way but it’s better than dealing with fillings and root canals for sure. My kid’s very good about this but if I noticed that over the span of several years there were no appointments being attended on breaks I’d at least raise the question about whether she found a decent dentist at her location and of course, since she’s under my insurance I’d know if she wasn’t seeing a dentist.</p>
<p>The good news - having 8 cavities drilled and filled and a couple of root canals is ‘behavioral negative reinforcement’ that might help her change her ways to avoid this in the future. I do feel bad for her on this though - that much time having work done in a dentist chair is no fun and of course it’s no fun to pay for either. </p>
<p>On paying - most dental plans have a very low limit - it’s easy to hit the max for the year fairly quickly and she’s liable to with all this work. Check to see what the anticipated cost will be and what your insurance will cover. If you hit the max then she could check with the dentist to see if any of the work can reasonably be delayed to January to use some of next year’s insurance money for it.</p>
<p>My kids had sealants. Oldest had one tiny cavity. Youngest so far has perfect teeth. I’m so jealous. I suspect they also have Dad’s teeth and more fluoride than I did growing up overseas. I just recently took youngest to dentist - it had been so long they had to dig his records out of deep storage - I’m a bad Mom, but between junior years abroad and working at his college over the summer it was easy to forget.</p>
<p>Thanks for reminding me to make an appointment for my daughter when she is home. So far we have done appointments on her brief trips home - including wisdom teeth extraction (she was thrilled about that).</p>
<p>But when I was 16 (years and years ago) I went to the dentist and came away with many cavities. He said it was due to puberty. Over the course of one year I had 12 fillings. It was horrible. Since then I’ve only had one more (and a root canal for a tooth that cracked around the filling). I’m sure some of it may be not taking care of her teeth, but some of it may just be due to other factors beyond her control.</p>
<p>I’d also suggest the 2nd opinion – my daughter also had the experience of an unscrupulous dentist who told her she needed a root canal. However, she had been going to the dentist regularly and rarely has cavities, so she had the sense to ask her co-workers for a recommendation for another dentist and get another opinion. I don’t think she had any cavities at all! Just an evil dentist. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t be quite as optimistic in your daughter’s case, given the fact that she was seeing the dentist because of a bad toothache – but I’d still recommend a 2nd opinion before starting a lot of work, especially when the dentist is someone she hasn’t seen before.</p>
<p>I’m all for getting second medical opinions but keep in mind - when the O/P’s daughter goes to the endodontist, they will also perform their own examination (with X-rays).</p>
<p>If it turns out that the root canal is not necessary, the endodontics office will tell her so.</p>
<p>My son has always been home at least for a week over the summer and winter breaks, so he sees our dentist then. We don’t have dental insurance but after what we’ve invested in our kids mouth, I don’t mind paying for the check-ups! </p>
<p>I also encourage a second opinion before proceeding. My own dentist is wonderful and he has saved friends of mine lots and lots of money when I refer them to him for second opinions.</p>
I second this - with my insurance this would definitely be an issue. It may make sense to have some work done in 2013 and some put off to next year if this is the case.</p>