getting a deadly infection and an eating disorder from an untreated shattered tooth because dental isn’t considered healthcare
Canada too!! Because apparently teeth and eyes aren’t part of the body for universal healthcare. Luxury bones indeed.
It's always been so insulting. When you're a kid and a teenager you can have the government's insurance and then your parent's insurance. But as soon as you are an adult that starts working minimum wage without any social advantages, you have to pay for the expensive dentist out of pocket. So lots of young people that are relatively poor will pass the beginning of their adult life without dental insurance, and avoid going there.
And if they're lucky and evolve into the job market, they can eventually find an employer that offers dental insurance! With any luck they won't spend more than a few years without insurance. Otherwise if they stay at minimum wage, they can also keep paying out of pocket, because it's certainly not their retail job that will offer dental insurance.
No, I'm still not bitter at all about this experience. /s
At least this supposed to change eventually, thanks to the NDP.
I was lucky when I was cooking at a bar that the surfer/painter dentist down the road would let you pay in payments. Everyone at the bar went to him. He did good work too.
Canada has a national dental plan now.
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/dental/dental-care-plan.html
Yes, I know. We have dental coverage from my husbands work, luckily, as we would make just a bit too much combined to be able to take advantage of it.
The moment robotic and/or 3D flesh printed limbs get viable, sewing back your clean cut limbs will be a luxury too, with "economic" options of fake limbs that can be put on the stump, since "you can always just ask your boss very nicely to give you a call center job instead".
And dental insurance SUCKS.
I had a dental plan at an old job that was 24 dollars a pay period, and the annual coverage limit was $500.
I have “good” dental coverage that claims to pay a decent percentage of costs, but it’s of “reasonable and customary costs”. We live in a high cost of living state and it’s just not reasonable. They never seem to include the bus ticket to Mississippi to find someone willing to do it that cheaply.
….. as a parent paying for yet another set of braces where insurance covers “up to 50% of reasonable costs” or more realistically about 20%
Correction: you can have veneers over your rotten teeth.
Obviously they are luxury bones you should pay to enjoy
Girlfriend and I just paid about $10k to fly out to Costa Rica to get her a full set of crowns. Easily would've been $40k to do it in the States. Another good looking option was to drive to Mexico.
I am planning a move to San Antonio, and the biggest determining factor for me has been proximity to Mexican dentists. I have fucked teeth. My bottom wisdom teeth came in laying down like battering rams and crushed the back 4 teeth on both sides, completely destroyed them. I had no dental insurance and no ability to pay out of pocket, so I just had to deal with the pain. My mom managed to find a dentist to prescribe me Vicodin while it was happening, but that was the extent of what we could get done. Since then, I've had several abscesses because of it, and had to have several removed. I still need a few removed and implants or something. I brush my fucking teeth, I don't understand what the problems are. But I'll be happy to be near to cheaper dentists.
The type of food you eat can determine your mouth's bacteria biome, which none of us had any fucking way of knowing, other than pure chance.
Streptococcus Mutans trives on refined sugars that are available to us in modern times. They create a biofilm around your teeth that traps the bacteria itself, along with it's acid byproducts.
They eventually wear down your enamel, and other bacteria start feeding on the softer dentin within. The acidic environment kills off the original Streptococcus Mutans bacteria.
I think this is also worldwide
In Italy healthcare is Free but dental isn't included.
In my city there's a free service for dental emergencies but it's open from 8 am to 8.30 am so that means if you didn't camp outside the door at 3 am it's already full
Hungary used to be just like that, but it lead to people dying of complications, so it had to be undone, but not for replacing teeth, because that will surely lead to children eating sweets instead of fruits, and of course adults won't buy Brandname™ electric toothbrush and toothpaste (it lead to people in general avoiding dentists like the plague due to "fear of having your teeth pulled with no way of replacing them").
I'm literally looking forward to having 8 teeth pulled this month because A. at least the pain will go away B. They're putting me under general because the several extractions I've had before this traumatized the shit out of me.
I could also share the story of paying $800 for a root canal and temp crown then losing my job before getting the perm crown. The remainder of that tooth was extracted a year later for $350.
Paying $1150 to lose a tooth radicalized the fuck out of me.
Recovery from General is kind of rough but I think it's the only thing that my insurance would cover too. I had all the work in my mouth done at once under general for 8 hours. The follow-up 4 hour procedure was done under IV sedation where they give you fentanyl.
That stuff is a miracle. It feels easy on the body, like I woke up and could semi function after a couple hours instead of two or three days later from the GA. I didn't feel or remember anything. And while I was nervous because in my previous experience I really like opioids, there is no lingering wish to go to the dentist for more really expensive drugs. Heck, I don't remember any of it.
When my tooth started rot, the pain was so severe that I tried to pull it out with my hand. Now I am eating only on left side of my mouth. Hope left teeth won't die...
Been there done that. Was pulling rotted roots from a broken tooth the other week...had my surgery set but my x-rays were 6 months old, shit had deteriorated and surgeon agreed with me that a new exam was warranted. That meant the surgery was delayed and I get to deal with the pain for longer and likely get more pulled.
I legitimately want them to pull everything. I'd rather deal with full dentures until I can afford implants. My teeth have always been sensitive and I will absolutely fuck my tongue up probing at partial denture wires.
Just today I had two new chunks fall out. The first time I bit down on a chunk of tooth scarred me, but the day I realized I was used to it broke me a bit.
You should look at a local university dental school as an option. They'll often do emergency dental care without payment up front and super affordable.
Not a doctor, but I guess it depends on the case, the anaesthetic used and so on. As a kid I had to have a primary molar pulled out and it hurt like hell with local anaesthetic. Recently I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled out and I didn't feel a thing during the procedure (also with just local anaesthetic) - it only hurt for a few days afterwards while the wounds were healing.
My red-headed mother passed down the gene mutation (melanocortin- 1 receptor) that causes resistance to lidocaine and other local anesthesia. Made for some rough dentist/ortho visits as a child. The pain afterwards is pretty negligible but when the lidocaine wears off mid-extraction it's fucking rough.
ugh i am so sorry friend
Honestly, it's the same in Denmark.
Dental health is the one medical speciality where access to healthcare in Europe is almost as bad as the US.
On paper, most European countries include it in the universal health, but in practice it either only covers doing the bare minimum on life threatening conditions or there's only one dentist in the public healthcare system per million people.
They won't install veneers, but pretty much anywhere they'll pull your tooth if you're getting an infection, at least you'll be spared that issue.
It's mostly the same in Canada too but we are moving in the right direction at least!
Amerikuh fuck yeah! 🇺🇸
Same in Australia, the only political party that does support having dental as healthcare and funded nationaly (The Greens, by taxing billionares) don't get enough votes to legilsate it.
Australian's are happy with shitty teeth and allowing billionaires to have all the nice teeth.
Practically no country has teeth implants as a part of their healthcare. We in Slovenia get partial external dentures for free and our healthcare is relatively decent (unlike our political climate).
Wisdom tooth came in. Killed my rear molar. It's still in there, rotting out slowly and half disintegrated.
Can't afford an extraction. Guess I have to suffer not being able to fully open my jaw, constant pain from the rotting tooth, with the bonus of it potentially getting infected and finally putting me out of my misery.
Fuck capitalism.
If there's a dental school nearby you might be able to get it done cheaper at their clinic.
I had 4 wisdoms and my teeth are now fucked because of it. I had a molar that was fucked too. The wisdom disintegrated it, but I also couldn't afford to get it removed. So I used to get food stuck inside it all the time. #FuckCapitalism.
Bruh the food getting stuck in the disintegrating tooth, and behind the wisdom tooth itself with the way it's growing into my cheek, is fucking disgusting.
Medically necessary extractions are fairly affordable. If yours isn’t, I’d shop around for a different insurance.
For pain, get some finely ground Clove (try a bulk store to buy small amounts), mix a very small amount with a very small amount of coconut oil (or water, but that's a little harder. Use a q-tip and put it on your tooth. It's very strong, painless and can temporarily stop the pain as well as killing bad germs. Keep it on there as long as you can. You will produce a lot of saliva. Try not to swallow much of it, it may give you heartburn. It won't kill you. But you should not consume large quantities of Clove. Your pain should go away for a few days. Try not to do this too much. There are Clove toothpastes in health food stores, but they are hard to find in the USA. This is a temporary solution.
Same with the UK. Chewing and vision are classed as premium live features for some reason.
Where I grew up, we called them "luxury bones"
My dad calls them an Audi (even if they cost way more).
I have health insurance through work that specifically covers dental and I still had to pay about $900 for two fillings. If I had something serious like needing a root canal I might as well just sell them my kidney.
I dunno, I know folks who made the money and still didn't manage to afford keeping their teeth.
Are there deadly dental consequences from ignoring tooth issues that don't first involve lots of pain? Asking for a friend.
40 + years of taking care to go to the dentist, and still lost molars to decay and periodontal disease. Don't chew tobacco!
Glad I don’t use mouth cancer gum
Wow, how did you describe my life so well?
Half way though a year long wait to get 2 more root canals. Maxed it out this year with 2 root cannals and a few fillings.
My dentist actually solved this by being so busy and the only dentist office for miles that my 6 month checkup happens every 13 months.
What eating disorder is a symptom of an untreated broken tooth?
not a symptom, but a trigger or risk factor - dental trauma can be really painful and becomes psychological trauma if severe enough
especially if someone was already predisposed to anorexia/bullimia, something like severe jaw pain can indirectly trigger a clinical eating disorder. the point is that all health is intrinsically linked and not neatly cordoned off into “dental,” “regular,” and “vision.”
good question thanks for asking! :)
Do you have any idea how much of aging for example, is just permanent damage stacking up from our unhealthy modern lifestyles?
Sure, you can see tribesmen shriveled up, that exists to. But back pain? Reflux? Cognitive decline? All side-effects of anything from horrible air quality (COPD, Pulmonary fibrosis, higher dementia risk), the worst kinds of slop food, getting overworked until your knees fall out.
None of this is trully necessary. If everyone cared for each other, we could automate a good deal of work, while still providing for humans.
But we live in a world of selfishness, contempt, and ignorance.
Probably meant anorexia from not being able to eat. It's not really the same thing, but not eating is not eating.
I'm from some country in the EU. We have a saying, half joke, half serious: You aren't truly successful living abroad if you have to come home to fix your teeth. I guess it holds some truth.