I’ve got almost every tooth decayed. I’m in terrible pain and my health insurance won’t cover any of it unless I spend $50 a month for a dental PPO. I don’t understand why insurance won’t cover this. How can I find a dentist who will give me decent dental care at a good price. I want the snap-in dentures so I don’t have to take out the teeth all the time. How do I go about getting the right dentist?
Kelly
Dear Kelly,
You are in a tough spot and I have some even tougher news for you. If you are unwilling to pay $50 for a dental plan, you’re never going to want to pay the out of pocket cost for snap-in dentures. They are significantly more money. I know it is frustrating that medical insurance won’t cover something which is causing you medical problems as well. As much pain as you are in, then you probably are not eating well. But, there is no way around that. Medical insurance won’t cover dental issues.
That means your choices are 100% of out-of-pocket payments or you pay for some dental insurance to help with the cost. The thing that worries me is the amount of decay. You very likely have a tooth infection. These are considered dental emergencies because they can spread outside of your jaw and become life threatening.
Sometimes when people can’t afford a dentist they try to get away with antibiotics, but that does not cure a tooth infection. There are only two ways to do that: a root canal treatment or a tooth extraction. Getting a root canal treatment is the better option because it will save your natural tooth structure. Call me an optimist, but my hope is if you get to the dentist, it could be possible to save some or even most of your teeth.
This blog is brought to you by a friendly dentist in Kalamazoo, Dr. Susan Dennis.
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