You’ve seen it. That brown bottle hiding behind the painkillers — same one your parents dabbed on scraped knees. Now it’s trending again, this time as a rinse. People are swishing it, mixing it, calling it a “natural whitener.”
Dental bills in New York can sting. A crown can run higher than rent in Queens for the month, and a simple root canal can eat through your savings if you’re not covered. Insurance isn’t exciting, but it’s the difference between a mild inconvenience and a serious financial hit.
If you ask ten patients what a cavity is, you’ll hear ten different versions:
“It’s a hole,” “It’s something I did wrong,” “It’s sugar,” “It’s just a stain,” “It’s a spot that the dentist wants to drill.”
This question usually comes up late in the conversation. Often after a patient says something like, “I just want my teeth cleaned and whitened,” as if those were two steps of the same procedure.
Most people do not plan to have a root canal. They arrive because something has changed. The tooth feels different. Chewing on one side no longer feels safe. Cold lingers longer than it used to. Or the pain stopped suddenly, which can be just as concerning.