A Confession

I have a confession to make, but I feel pretty okay putting it out there into the blogosphere because i think it’s something that a lot of people also neglect. I loathe going to the dentist and at previous points in my life, sometimes years would slip by between appointments. Except that once I hit my thirties and started getting cavities and root canals, I knew that this strategy was clearly a bad one and that I had to change my ways before I had a mouthful of metal.

The New Dental Care Strategy

These days, I make myself go to the dentist at least once a year, preferably a month or two before my birthday, or at last resort, on my birthday. Last year, I held out way too long and ended up literally going on my birthday, which was not a happy occasion. But, it was my own fault for procrastinating and I have no one but myself to blame. This method is the easiest one I can think of for keeping track of appointments and not letting years slip by. It could also work fabulously well for something like an annual physical.

Why is Going to the Dentist Frugal?

Whenever you go the dentist, you have to spend money so it might seem kind of strange classifying this as frugal living. Except here in Korea a checkup and cleaning costs about $10 and a simple cavity filling is just slightly more expensive (it’s mostly covered by national health insurance), while a root-canal can cost upwards of $500 or more. Back home in Canada or the USA, things like root canals are way more expensive than that.

Clearly, it is far, far better to spend the $10 on a cleaning and checkup and perhaps another $15 on a small filling once/year than it it to drop $500 on a root canal. I’m totally convinced that catching things early with regards to dental care is huge.

Don’t forget to floss!







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