More Netherlands residents getting teeth pulled to avoid pricey dental treatments

Dentists are flooded with appointments from people desperate to get their teeth checked before health insurance rates increase next year. Many people will stop their additional dental coverage to reduce costs. Patients are also opting to pull teeth rather than undergo more expensive treatment, De Gelderlander reports.

“In recent years, we have been increasingly asked whether a tooth can be pulled, for example, if a needed treatment costs 400 or 500 euros,” said Nijmegen dentist Jeanne Baggen, also a researcher at the University of Amsterdam. Pulling a tooth only costs about 40 euros. “Fifty years ago, we rarely pulled a tooth. That’s really different now.”

Health insurance premiums will increase by about 10 euros per month from January 1. Group discounts on premiums will also no longer be allowed. So people are looking for other ways to cut their health insurance costs, like opting for a higher deductible or scrapping their dental insurance.

“In this crisis that we are in right now, people are making choices at the expense of luxury. And a dentist is seen as a luxury,” Baggen said. “They pledge to set aside the money they save. But practice shows that people don’t do that. And if they do have to pay, they ask whether treatment can be postponed for a year.”

“We also see more often people who no longer have a permanent dentist,” Baggen said to the newspaper. They only go to the dentist if they really experience problems. “They then come to the door with a toothache and ask to pull the tooth.”

On Thursday, Statistics Netherlands reported that people between the ages of 20 and 65 have been going to the dentist less and less since 2019. People with a lower income also visited the dentist less in the past two years than those with a higher income, even if they had supplementary insurance.