Trip to the dentist
I had a toothache for the last couple of days, so I went to the dentist to see what needed to be done about it.
?I thought it would be something fairly simple and cheap. It was just the one tooth, right?
No such luck. I need over $1500 in dental work to save my teeth. My insurance will only pay $500, leaving me to come up with the rest by myself.
I got two teeth that are rotten and infected, so, I'm on antibiotics to bring the infection under control. Then they are going to remove those two teeth. I need a cavity filled, deep cleaning, special treatments, scrape the tartar and plaque off, surgery to remove a tooth that grew into the jawbone sideways under the gum, and eventually, they might consider braces to straight out the alignment. The enamel is eroded. Also, I've got periodontal disease that has caused the bone to corrode away from the base of the teeth, and that has to be brought under control before they can start any treatment to restore the lost bone tissue. This is over the course of the next year.
The part that freaked me out was the sideways tooth. I got one tooth that grew in crooked, with a gap on either side. Right behind that crooked tooth is a large lump under the gum, near the roof of my mouth It doesn't bother me, but I've always wondered why I had a lump there that wasn't also on the other side of my mouth. Turns out that lump I've been feeling all these years was that sideways tooth.
So much for simple and cheap. I had no ideal my teeth was that bad. I'll have to find a way to come up with the money because the thought of losing all my teeth scares the wits out of me.
The dentist is willing to break the work in to smaller chunks so I can just pay for a bit at a time as I can afford it.
Bad part is I need two major cleaning/scraping/gum thingy, each one cost about $480. And my insurance won't cover it, so that's all out of pocket expenses.
TLDR: Brush your teeth. Toothpaste is cheaper than tooth decay.
?I thought it would be something fairly simple and cheap. It was just the one tooth, right?
No such luck. I need over $1500 in dental work to save my teeth. My insurance will only pay $500, leaving me to come up with the rest by myself.
I got two teeth that are rotten and infected, so, I'm on antibiotics to bring the infection under control. Then they are going to remove those two teeth. I need a cavity filled, deep cleaning, special treatments, scrape the tartar and plaque off, surgery to remove a tooth that grew into the jawbone sideways under the gum, and eventually, they might consider braces to straight out the alignment. The enamel is eroded. Also, I've got periodontal disease that has caused the bone to corrode away from the base of the teeth, and that has to be brought under control before they can start any treatment to restore the lost bone tissue. This is over the course of the next year.
The part that freaked me out was the sideways tooth. I got one tooth that grew in crooked, with a gap on either side. Right behind that crooked tooth is a large lump under the gum, near the roof of my mouth It doesn't bother me, but I've always wondered why I had a lump there that wasn't also on the other side of my mouth. Turns out that lump I've been feeling all these years was that sideways tooth.
So much for simple and cheap. I had no ideal my teeth was that bad. I'll have to find a way to come up with the money because the thought of losing all my teeth scares the wits out of me.
The dentist is willing to break the work in to smaller chunks so I can just pay for a bit at a time as I can afford it.
Bad part is I need two major cleaning/scraping/gum thingy, each one cost about $480. And my insurance won't cover it, so that's all out of pocket expenses.
TLDR: Brush your teeth. Toothpaste is cheaper than tooth decay.