Tooth Shenanigans

[AmbrosiaWriter]

For the love of calamity in a bucket of honey.

This one tooth has just caused my endless suffering and now my bank account is going to take a massive hit (not that it hasn't already thanks to this damn tooth.)

My wisdom tooth came in impacted (not uncommon) but apparently it managed to hit at just the right angle where no matter how much I tried I couldn't clean everything and so a cavity developed right between the wisdom tooth and the molar in front of it.

So, flash forward to after wisdom teeth are gone. Turns out, my gums are now all out of sorts where that wisdom tooth game out. So I had to go in for surgery to re-sculpt the gums.

Then my dentist discovers the cavity, and says "Okay, filling."

Then, during the filling procedure, it turns to, "Oh, not filling, root canal!"

Off to the people who do root canals, "Oh, no root canal, filling will do."

Mind you I'm being charged (they all would finagle around and get me the lowest priced procedures possible to charge to insurance, but seriously, it's still hitting my bank account.)

Back to dentist, "Oh.. no filling... we'll need to crown it."

And now... NOW.... NOW... during the crown process, "Oh, the crown is going to fail. You'll need to have the tooth removed and an implant put in.

If I don't get the implant, there is a chance the tooth above it will super erupt and therefore have to be pulled as well. Considering my luck with these teeth... I'd put money on it will super erupt.

I'm ready to just cry. My insurance runs out in May and the dental part of it sucks anyway (they cover a flat - very, very tiny - amount of procedures, rather than a percentage of the procedure amount.) I'm on minimum wage, paying student loans, etc.

My one saving grace is that I applied for a job that would bump me up to $13/hour with benefits, playing with dogs, and the lady I talked to made sure I knew they were still hiring for full time positions. So... please pray for me that this tooth isn't going to completely ruin me.

[Caffienated_Caramel]

*hugs*

Wow. I can't believe they're charging you full price at all, assuming they didn't go all the way through it. Do they ask for the money upfront or do they offer monthly payments?

I remember going through a couple a dental procedures back in 2011 (pulled teeth, fillings and root canal) and those were not kind to my wallet either.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

They weren't charging me full price for the original procedures they were attempting to do, they would finagle a way to get a much lower cost procedure that still applied charged to insurance/me. So for example instead of being charged for a full crown (which would've cost me over $800 after insurance) they charged me for a temporary crown ($350 before insurance.)

But it's just annoying that it's happening at all. I knew as soon as the dentist first said "root canal" I should've just gone and had the tooth removed entirely. I had a feeling, my gut was saying "this is going to be a problem, just have the tooth removed!" Now about 5 months later and I'm sitting here going "damnit I should've listened to my gut."

[Food Lady]

I'm so sorry this is happening to you! I can totally relate. I have had a root canal and now have to come up with 20% of the cost of the crown. Those can wait. I got my root canal done over a year ago and the post is holding strong. I always have some kind of work done every year. But once all the bad problems are taken care of, it gets better. Maybe you can get on a payment plan?

[Arcus]

I know how this all feels. I found myself in the same place last month when I got laid off. I went running around trying to find someone to get as much taken care of before my insurance ran out. Several years worth of being too busy to get things taken care of caught up to me. The last few weeks have not been fun, but at least I will have a smile worth smiling with.

[tollbaby]

Um.... have you considered the possibility that your dentists are idiots? I've never had people waffle like that on what needed to be done unless they were trying to pad the bill. I mean GEEZ.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Um.... have you considered the possibility that your dentists are idiots? I've never had people waffle like that on what needed to be done unless they were trying to pad the bill. I mean GEEZ.

Nah it's not that they are idiots. All of these revelations came during the middle of the procedures.

Not everything can be seen from an x-ray, so they really couldn't tell what was going on until they got in on the tooth and started to work.

I'm not pissed at my dentists for all this happening, because they honestly were trying to do what was best and did their best to charge me the lowest they possible could for what they had to do. I'm just pissed at this tooth and the entire situation is frustrating.

I love my dentist. He's awesome. I've had him since I was younger and I know he wouldn't do things like this just to make some extra money (especially since both his secretary and his assistant would flay him alive for even thinking it, especially on a poor girl making only minimum wage with very shitty insurance.)

It's just this FRACKING TOOTH.

[Sapphire Silk]

Wow. That sucks. I can't blame you for trying to save the tooth; it's always better to keep your own teeth if possible.

Unfortunately, dental care is so expensive that a lot of folks just can't manage it.

I hope you get the new job and can figure out a solution to the tooth problems that doesn't bankrupt you.

[Teefies2]

I can so relate.


My dentist did the same dance .... I have bone loss in my jaw, which means one of my teeth is really loose. It needs to be pulled. BUT my daughter had to have her wisdom teeth out in December, so I'm still paying on that $500 that was my portion after insurance.

He says "this tooth is loose oh root canal!" I said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (having had one done a few years ago, it's too damn painful). And besides, if there's bone loss, what the heck are you going to anchor the root canal to? So he says, ok, pull it. I say yes ... "but" he says "you are taking Fosamax" (for osteoporosis - duh - bone loss!) "so we can't do it, you have to go to a specialist". Talked to the specialist, they want another $300 after insurance (I work in retail, not getting rich anytime soon). Ummmm no.

Oh well, it's been loose for over a year, I can put up with it a little longer - it's just so damn annoying!

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Plan is the same. Tooth will be removed, and the bone augmented so that I have some time to buffer between the tooth coming out and the post for the implant going in.

Good news, is that I did a phone interview with that new job, pretty sure I nailed it, and am going in for a "let's see how well you work with the dogs/coworkers" interview on Tuesday.

If I manage to get this job... I'll be over doubling my income. Just gotta stay positive.

[raudf]

What irritating is having gone to a dentist a while back, he finds what I already had a feeling about.. a cracked molar. HURT. He did a core build up to hold it together while I tried to get the money up for a crown. Then my insurance changed and he wasn't on the new one at all and I couldn't afford to do this without the insurance.

The dentist that I did find.. well, she was okay for doing fillings, but she has a bad habit of sending people to specialists for things, "To make sure insurance will cover it!" Yeah, that was her excuse about the cracked molar and sending me to the dentist that specializes in nerve damage.. which I knew I didn't have, because it only hurt when I bit down on the tooth and the pain would clear up quite nicely once I was done chewing. But she wouldn't do the work until I had gone. I honestly should have gotten someone else to do it at that point.

That said, didn't need the root canal, just a crown. And it took them nearly 5 weeks to get the new crown in. 3 week normal wait period and then, "Oh she'll be out of town for when we scheduled it! But we have the crown!" By week 4, I was furious, because she had to reschedule due to migraine.. but I couldn't be seen until the next week. Beginning of week 5, the temp broke and I went in the next day, (because they couldn't see me that day, because she was playing "catch up!") and got the crown put on.

Needless to say, when her office help got pissy with me because I had to reschedule my hubby's appointment 3 times (although one of those times were HER offices' fault,) I fired her. I'm looking into a new dentist as we speak. Probably one of the practices that also has an orthodontist in it, for the boys.

[Dreamstalker]

I had a molar pulled in 2009 (wonky wisdom tooth caused a cavity right at the gumline which wasn't noticed until years later when it was found out that said molar was being dissolved from inside), and my dentist is urging me to get an implant so the upper molar doesn't supererupt. Problem is, I don't think I'd be able to pay for it even on a payment plan; my insurance may not (probably won't) cover it.