SPOKANE, Wash. — Turns out, daily oral care for your pearly whites past age 50 can pay dividends beyond a strong bite and bright smile.
People approaching retirement don’t always think about dental care costs adding to the bottom line of living expenses, and it’s a common misconception that basic Medicare covers regular trips to the dentist and certain oral procedures. It doesn’t.
Kathy Finley, 68, got that surprise after she retired from teaching religious studies at Gonzaga University. Until about three years ago, Finley had medical and dental insurance through her employer and assumed Medicare would cover similar expenses.
“I didn’t realize until I got to that point that there was no coverage at all for dental under Medicare,” Finley said. “With the supplemental (Medicare) stuff, it didn’t change how much we’d be paying per year out of pocket.”
Costs of dental visits already have stacked up. While her husband recently secured some dental coverage through Veterans Affairs, she’s had to pay cash for fillings and dental checkups twice a year.
“I’m trying to do that at full cost,” Finley said. “Even though the dentist does a 10 percent discount for seniors, it’s still awfully expensive for our budget. My understanding is there’s a connection between oral health and my overall health. If you don’t take care of your teeth, it can cause other health issues.”
Sometimes, a daily oral health regiment isn’t enough to prevent a huge bill. Joyce McNamee is a 74-year-old widow of a dentist who regularly talks to Spokane seniors about oral health. An advocate of fluoride, she follows a rigorous routine for cleaning teeth and gums to the point that her hygienist spends about 15 minutes for cleanings. Despite that, she faced recent unexpected dental expenses.
She recently found out that a cavity had formed between two of her teeth in a space under a crown that was hard to detect. She needed a root canal, followed by restorative work on the tooth that included removal and replacement of the crown. It all adds up to $2,000 out of pocket.
Dr. Nick Freuen, a Spokane oral surgeon at Cascade Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, is someone who sees patients regularly juggling those expenses. A large number of them are ages 60 and older who seek care for implants or restorative work because of tooth or gum loss.
In addition to regular oral care at home, he recommends people planning for retirement do save specifically for future dental costs. Even people with insurance often misunderstand what is needed to cover major work, he added.
“People think they’ll be fine, but you run out of $1,000 real quick when you start to do restorative work,” Freuen said. “The biggest problem I see in the elderly is they have a whole lot more risk of dental decay.”
Risk reasons include aging-related dry mouth conditions and lessened dexterity for oral hygiene such as regular flossing, he said.
“You probably should see your dentist even more often for oral hygiene,” said Freuen, who also recommends fluoride treatments at the dentist. “People should look back on work they’ve had done in the past, and they should anticipate similar work. If you’re losing dexterity in your hands, consider getting an ultrasonic toothbrush. Drink lots of water, and consider getting some saliva substitutes.”
Jim Sledge, 71, a retired Spokane dentist, says that while fluoridation, fluoride toothpaste, and better oral care have gone a long way toward baby boomers keeping their own teeth, that dental longevity poses another challenge.
“How do people continue taking care of their teeth?” Sledge said. “When people are approaching retirement, as a dentist, I encouraged them to get any major dentist work done a couple of years before retirement, then put some money away to continue to come to the dentist.”
“I told them to spend extra time and effort on oral health.”
