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Young Danes avoiding dentist due to hefty bills
Christian Wenande
August 13th, 2015
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This article is more than 9 years old.
Some 30 percent have forgone the dentist due to financial reasons over the past two years
No-one enjoys going to the dentist. Frequently, it’s because of all that unpleasant drilling, but for younger Danes, the aversion is of a more financial nature.
A new YouGov survey for Metroxpress newspaper showed that every third Dane aged 18-29 forgoes trips to the dentist due to the steep bills incurred while sitting in that dreaded chair.
The survey showed that 30 percent of the Danes in that age group said they had avoided the dentist in the past two years because they dreaded the bill. Some 68 percent said they hadn’t, while 2 percent didn’t know. But saving money on teeth now might lead to a bigger hole in the tooth and budget later on.
“It pains my dentist’s heart to hear that. Every month I pull teeth and do root canal treatments that would have been unnecessary had my patients come earlier,” Freddie Sloth-Lisbjerg, the head of the dentists’ association Tandlægeforeningen, told Metroxpress.
“I usually tell people that it’s expensive not to go to the dentist. A small cavity costs 400 kroner to fix, while a larger one can cost 1,600 kroner.”
READ MORE: Dentist bills look set to rise
Early bird avoids the burn
Sloth-Lisbjerg admitted that the fees are a little too steep when patients need work done. But in the future, young people can expect a little motivation from the dentists to have their teeth looked at.
From next year, the dentists will begin calling the Danes to inform them they haven’t been to the dentist for the past two years.
It costs 250-300 kroner, depending on your age, to have your teeth looked at by a dentist who can do some basic preventative work. But that could increase five-fold for fillings, and anesthesia and an x-ray can quickly push it past 2,000 kroner.
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