As metahacker suggests, the basic purpose is to try to avoid losing teeth and having them replaced by sucky imitations (bridges, dentures) or incredibly expensive imitations (implants). Minimizing pain is not the purpose.
Keep in mind that as you age, bad habits of your youth will more likely catch up to you. I've had all my lower teeth replaced due to a condition which is extremely rare in someone my age, but not rare at all in the 60+ demographic. The cost was about $80k before insurance, $40k after (and the insurance situation could've been a lot worse). If you can manage to avoid that with 2 cleanings a year and a bit of flossing, that would be a win.
Having said that, I agree with you that the current state of dentistry is rather appalling. The fact that it's still such a mechanical approach, with all kinds of stabbing and scraping involved, is total crap. I hope they perfect that anti-cavity bacteria (http://www.oragenics.com/product_replacement.php) soon.
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Date: 2007-07-12 03:23 am (UTC)Keep in mind that as you age, bad habits of your youth will more likely catch up to you. I've had all my lower teeth replaced due to a condition which is extremely rare in someone my age, but not rare at all in the 60+ demographic. The cost was about $80k before insurance, $40k after (and the insurance situation could've been a lot worse). If you can manage to avoid that with 2 cleanings a year and a bit of flossing, that would be a win.
Having said that, I agree with you that the current state of dentistry is rather appalling. The fact that it's still such a mechanical approach, with all kinds of stabbing and scraping involved, is total crap. I hope they perfect that anti-cavity bacteria (http://www.oragenics.com/product_replacement.php) soon.