Dental bills can be expensive, but you only get one set of teeth. Unfortunately, basic dental maintenance is something that many people neglect when they don’t have a lot of cash in the bank. Sadly that can lead to more problems down the road that cost even more money.

While you won’t find a dentist that will do much work for free, there are some basic ways that you can pay for dental services without winding up broke and short on other bills like rent and electric. You just need to be smart about how you obtain services.

Keep reading to learn more about how you can pay for healthy teeth for you, your children or your family without breaking the bank.

Get Service Estimates Early

Going to the dentist isn’t quite like going to the mechanic, but just like anybody who performs services for a fee, your dentist should be able to give you an estimate about the work you need done. From there, you can discuss what is most important and how you can get the work done in an affordable fashion.

Even if you have to wait a month for cosmetic work or less immediate needs, knowing how you can pay is important.

Ask About Payment Plans

Paying for a large amount of dental work at once can be a hardship for many people. If you need a lot of dental work without insurance, you may simply feel like you can’t get it done at all.

Asking your dentist about a payment plan and how you can pay down the cost of their services over time is always an option. Even for people making money it can be very difficult to shell out thousands of dollars all at once.

Pay for Regular Checkups

It sounds counter-intuitive that you should go to the dentist more to avoid paying a lot of money to your dentist. The problem is that when you skip relatively affordable checkups, you’re more likely to wind up with serious dental problems down the road.

Ideally you should be getting checkups once every six months. Doing this will help you spend less each year on dentist bills and avoid the discomfort of being in the chair regularly.

After all, nobody wants to get more dental work done than they need. You can learn more about dentists in Charlotte NC and how you can get your work done by simply asking in most cases.