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butyoudontlooksick.com • View topic - teeth/dental care
I haven't been to a dentist since i was a child - probably around age 9 or 10, maybe earlier.
I'm 21 now. this was because growing up we had health insurance from my mom's work but not dental insurance, and we couldn't afford the cost most of the time.
i know i have a few cavities, especially in the middle teeth on either side, top and bottom.
My last year of high school, my wisdom teeth began growing in very slowly and painfully - every few months they will cause a lot of pain, swelling, headaches, etc.
And i know at least one is growing into another tooth.
They were all craggy and weird and a year or so ago a piece chipped off while i was eating;
The other night a piece actually fell out and the root of it was very soft.
This morning i woke up with a very big sore along the top outside of my gums on the side where bits have been coming off.
My mouth hadn't been swelling for a couple of weeks but that's caused it to swell again and become quite painful.
I know there's some sort of discharge coming from my wisdom teeth on that side of my mouth.
i had bad dental habits as a child but by the time i was 10 or so i was brushing every day, and now i am trying to use dental floss as much as i can bear to.
I also use sensodyne because i've always had really sensitive teeth - i can't eat popsicles, for example, and i have to be careful when i eat ice cream.
I'm really terrified about going to the dentist because i DON'T have the money.
It's just not there.
There is a free clinic in charlottesville that does acute dental care which i am going to try and get into but i am afraid there's a good chance i'll be denied because i have regular health insurance (not dental insurance), and i'm afraid they might not be able to do the surgery to remove my wisdom teeth.
i need help on how to deal with the pain and what other things i can do to help my teeth while i try to find a dentist/find a way to pay for it/get in with the clinic.
I'm afraid i'm going to be 30 and have to have dentures i've tried to take care of my teeth the best i can in the absence of being able to have dental care but i just don't know what else to do and i'm very scared about it.
I also am curious if anyone knows about good dental savings plans or anything i can possibly do to help ameliorate the cost.
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Garlic oil has been my lifesaver.
At some point, you are going to have to get the dental work dealt with, but myself and the guys have had very good luck fighting off infections with using garlic oil at 1-2g 3x a day.
It won't hold forever, though;
I finally had to have two teeth out this April because they were so bad off that it was causing extreme pain (if my parents had not been willing to pay for the treatment...
I might not be here today...
It was that bad ).
There are dental discount plans out there that will take away some of the cost.
They generally cost a couple hundred a year, depending on the plan you get.
I paid about $150 for an extraction out of pocket with one a few years back, and that was with more novocaine than expected.
However, they are not really that helpful if you get to the point of needing surgery.
If you are having pain and think you might need extractions, I would seriously consider looking into it.
There's a list at http://www.dentalplans.com -- I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, because money is tight for pretty much anyone who's a spoonie, but this isn't going away.
The sooner you can get it taken care of, the cheaper it will be.
My parents dumped about $1500 on my teeth between office visit cost, x-rays, and then everything associated with the surgery.
If I hadn't put it off, it would have been significantly cheaper.
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I just wrote this big detailed reply and lost it to an "SQL error" Grrr.
What I wanted to say was I fully understand the fear of dentists and I suffer from it too due to a traumatic experience when I was younger.
It was this almost paralyzing fear that kept me out of the dentists office when my teeth started breaking off last fall.
I would be eating a feel a piece of tooth in my mouth, or doing nothing at all and feel a piece and even wake up with a piece.
It was horrible!
I developed an abcess in a front tooth and battled it as long as I could stand it before finally giving in and going to a dentist.
Because it was so badly infected they wouldn't pull it (pretty standard practice from what I understand).
They took an x-ray, gave me scripts for antibiotics and pain meds and told me I needed a TON of teeth pulled then sent me to an oral surgeon.
Great
About this time I found out I was being laid off.
Long story short I had planned to get all my upper teeth pulled at one time while under IV sedation (they hook you up to an IV and you sleep through it - it is awesome) but my max that my dental insurance would pay was $1500 so it was going to be about $3000 on my part which I did not have.
So I had 10 teeth out and my mom helped pay my part which was still $1700.
In your situation I would recommend checking into the following things:
1) I think you are already looking into the dental clinic for low-income care, correct?
If not, check into that.
They may have a sliding scale based on income but there may be a long wait.
2) See if you have a local dental college.
If so, find out how long the wait is there and what they charge.
Should be lower than a regular dentist.
The students need the clinical hours and are supervised.
3) Check with your friends and family and see if they have any recommendations for a reasonable dentist and better yet, if they know of one that will work with you on payment (I think this is probably a dying breed in this day and age but it can't hurt to ask).
4) Look in the yellow pages to see if there are any dentists who offer a sliding scale fee.
5) If you have decent credit look into financing it.
Care Credit is who my husband used to get his teeth pulled and get his dentures (before we got together).
There are other places.
You can apply online before you ever go anywhere and get an answer if you are approved or not.
I was NOT thus the scramble to get money to get 10 teeth out instead of all and an upper denture.
If you get it, try to get it paid off ASAP to avoid crazy interest charges.
Hope this goes through this time and hope it helps!
Kellye
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Thanks both of you
i'm actually not afraid of going to the dentist (i mean, i don't enjoy it but it doesn't bother me), i just have never been able to afford it.
The reason i'm really scared now isn't so much for the work itself - it's how i'm going to pay for it and what's happening to my mouth and what will happen to my teeth if i can't pay, or even if i do go and the damage is worse than i suspect.
i'm going to call the clinic today to get a financial screening, and as soon as my sister's phone gets turned back on she's supposed to call and let me know about the possibility of being added to her dental plan, since our parents have passed away and i'm still in school...that's a long shot but it might help, god willing, if they let me be added on.
I'm also looking into the discount plans...i've found one local clinic that does the care credit program, but i can't even look into trying to get the care credit until i deal with two credit cards which are in delinquency (they're for relatively small amounts but i can't pay them until financial aid is disbursed, and the school is stonewalling me big time about that at the moment, it was supposed to be disbursed weeks ago...i'm at the point where i can't pay rent, buy groceries, etc.
Because of that).
But i know that i'll be rejected out of hand due to that.
Unfortunately at the moment i've moved to an area where i don't really know anyone, so i can't get recommendations - although i am going to check at the mosque to see if anyone knows a good place when i go later this week.
Unfortunately there aren't any dentistry services which offer student-teaching services at low cost (we have a hospital here on campus where they do dentistry but they don't have the same sort of low-cost student-teaching type program that many community colleges do, unfortunately).
thanks so much for the support and ideas, it is helping a LOT.
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Lots of good ideas given already but I did want to add, check with your health insurance company many wisdom tooth extractions fall under 'medical' and not 'dental' categories.
You may be able to get it done and submitted to your health insurance carrier.
Good luck. I hope you get in somewhere and get it taken care of very soon.
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Oh wow, i had no idea.
As soon as i am able to buy health insurance for this year i will check with our school's insurance office to find out if that's a possibility.
Left a message with the clinic, praying they call me back soon!
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