One of those days…


I was up half the night with a toothache, so I’m off to the dentist for an emergency fix. I’m lucky — I have dental insurance. I’ve known people who suffered with this kind of thing for months before being able to get in and get taken care of, because America.

Then after that, there’s a vigil on campus for the Orlando victims — 4:30 in the student union. If you’re in the area, you’re welcome to stop by. We’re having this event also because America.

Comments

  1. robro says

    “Because America” indeed. I had an abscessed tooth for three or four years before I was able to afford a root canal at a dentist who would do general anesthesia. I tried to get it fixed at the University of Pacific, which is a dental school here that provides free/low cost service to train their students. Unfortunately, they couldn’t do general anesthesia and the infection was in the gum, so novocain wasn’t touching it for a root canal. They tried an intrapulpal injection…4 times…it’s as evil as it sounds, but that didn’t help. So the student dentist packed it up with something and I managed to survive.

    Still, that’s nothing compared to Orlando and all the other Orlando’s that happen practically everyday.

  2. edmond says

    I’ve known people who haved suffered with this kind of thing for months, only to fix it themselves… in the garage. With tools. Yeesh. And not because they wanted to, out of some sense of self-dependent machismo, but because they had no insurance.

  3. penalfire says

    Before I left for Germany, I had a dentist tell me I’d have to get a
    $2,500 root canal on one of my front teeth. When I protested that I felt
    no pain and indicated that perhaps it deserved a second look, he told me
    it was a choice between having the operation and losing the tooth.

    First thing I did in Germany was go to a dentist. With no health insurance,
    the examination cost me 30 euros.

    She told me that the tooth was fine and there was no need for a root canal.
    That was two years ago and I have felt zero pain since.

    Nevertheless, were I to get a root canal, it would cost — without any
    insurance — 400 euros.

    However, residents are required by law to have insurance, so I pay my 25
    euros a month for full coverage (medical, dental, vision — in Germany
    these are not arbitrarily separated).

    Not to mention many of the other benefits of living here. The United States
    really seems like a third-world country by comparison.

  4. Rowan vet-tech says

    Slightly OT… and slightly not… but my insurance/doctor is being very ho-hum about about my increasing shoulder/neck pain and my history of degenerative disk disease. I got put on a 2 week tapering course of pred which has accomplished nothing other than spiking my anxiety, which makes me very prone to understating my pain levels so I don’t come off as being ‘whiny’. Appendicitis hurt far less than my shoulder/neck/back do right now. I’ve barely been able to sleep the last few nights, and all my dreams centered around my shoulder hurting. I’m constantly nauseous.
    Because my doctor is being ho-hum and won’t do diagnostics for another 10 days, I can’t take nsaids, tylenol has only ever made my headaches *worse* and heat alone isn’t enough…. Does anyone have any advice on pain management? I’ve been sent home from work because I can’t *do* anything without being in pain. I want to sleep, but I hurt too much.

  5. ffakr says

    During arguments about the need for the ACA, I’ve been able to point out that I lived for many years with chronic back pain caused by a ruptured disk. I didn’t have insurance at the time or for some period afterwards because I was a student and marginally employed. I immediately knew it was ruptured because I felt it pop as my skinny frame reached the 3rd floor with the boxed particleboard entertainment center that I was moving by myself. ..that and I was in so much pain I had to lay face up on my girlfriends floor for two days straight. Ah, to be young and foolish again.

    I came from a middle-class family. When I was in school or employed but un- or under-insured I was never poor but I never felt prepared to address the costs associated with what the Dr.s would find. I lived in persistent pain for many years because I couldn’t afford to have it looked at. Imagine, even on a good day, worrying that you’re just one sneeze away from shooting pain and living that way for years on end.

    Insurance.. it’s overrated. /s

  6. says

    Sadly it is not just “because America”. Despite many of my fellow Canadians mindlessly declaring our healthcare is the best, and super awesome whenever awful examples from the US brought up, it has major gaps. One of those is dental care which is excluded from the Canada Health Act and coverage varies from province to province. Here in Ontario very little is covered unless you are receiving Ontario Works benefits, disability benefits, or have some specific dental surgery that is needed. Otherwise you are paying for private insurance or out of pocket.

  7. penalfire says

    I didn’t know that about the Canadian system. Dental care coverage is
    critical to any serious universal health care. For many people, especially
    the young, dental care is the only care they need regularly. I’ve been
    lucky that all my medical problems thus far have been dental; but that
    still has cost me tens of thousands of dollars — and I’ve had to go
    through long periods of unmitigated anguish while I scrambled to get
    together the cash.

    The only reason to treat dental care as secondary is to maximize profit. I
    don’t see how health problems in the mouth are any less urgent than health
    problems in the rest of the body. This division is even more arbitrary than
    the mind-body division of rationalist philosophy.

  8. says

    For many people, especially the young, dental care is the only care they need regularly.

    The Canadian system is a bit weird, as there are really different systems for each province, with the basic tenets set out in the Canada Health Act. There is a program for children in Ontario, Healthy Smiles, but it seems to offer coverage only to low income families. I am not sure why Canadians don’t push for dental coverage, dental care is not a luxury, and it is very much tied to overall health. We also have very spotty prescription coverage and long term care. I think a lot of Canadians are a bit apathetic about health care. Sure we complain about wait times and such, but in the end lots of us compare ourselves to the US, and decide we would rather have publicly health care and leave it at that rather than consider just being better than the US system in some regards is not saying much. I get the feeling many Canadians have no idea what is covered elsewhere.

  9. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Medicare does not cover dental, unless it is full extraction/dentures. So those of us who are retired have to either purchase separate coverage, or get an “Advantage Plan” (part C), where dental is covered. Since dental coverage costs, the insurance companies either may you pay premiums, or reduce their payments for co-pays, lengths of stays, etc. A zero sum game.
    Ads on TV make it sound like you can get everything covered. They don’t mention the premiums required for that to happen….
    We’re on a separate dental coverage.

  10. Nick Gotts says

    Dental care is not free in the UK either – for no good reason given its importance to general health – but admittedly charges on the NHS are relatively low compared to what I hear for the USA. I just had a check-up, clean and polish and a replacement filling for just under £30. But it’s increasingly hard to find a dentist who does NHS work – they can make much more doing teeth whitening and botox injections for the well-off. I have a good NHS dentist, and I’m hanging on to her despite living over an hour’s travel away!

  11. says

    It has been quite a while since I had a filling replaced, but I think it was on the order of $200 for the procedure.

  12. says

    I’ve known people who suffered with this kind of thing for months before being able to get in and get taken care of, because America.

    Yeah, but we have the new littoral combat ship, and the F-35. Not that either of them work. Coulda had healthcare instead, Americans!

  13. says

    End result of my dental visit: they can’t do anything. I’ve got what he called a “hot tooth”, a molar with a deep infection that gives me two choices: they can try to get deep enough to numb it, which probably won’t work, so I’ll probably experience intense pain while they try to drill it out and do a root canal, which will probably be more expensive than usual because they’ll have to replace the dental chair after I rip out the arm rests; or I can take some heavy antibiotics for a week or two to cool it down first, and then they can treat it with less agony for all involved.

    I opted for the latter option.

    The downside is that the tooth is extremely cold sensitive right now, so I won’t be sipping any iced tea for a while. At least not until early July.

  14. says

    Rowan:

    Slightly OT… and slightly not… but my insurance/doctor is being very ho-hum about about my increasing shoulder/neck pain and my history of degenerative disk disease. I got put on a 2 week tapering course of pred which has accomplished nothing other than spiking my anxiety, which makes me very prone to understating my pain levels so I don’t come off as being ‘whiny’. Appendicitis hurt far less than my shoulder/neck/back do right now. I’ve barely been able to sleep the last few nights, and all my dreams centered around my shoulder hurting. I’m constantly nauseous.
    Because my doctor is being ho-hum and won’t do diagnostics for another 10 days, I can’t take nsaids, tylenol has only ever made my headaches *worse* and heat alone isn’t enough…. Does anyone have any advice on pain management? I’ve been sent home from work because I can’t *do* anything without being in pain. I want to sleep, but I hurt too much.

    Jesus Christ. Can you get another doctor? You need to be seeing a neurologist. Without meds, I’m a screaming wreck. I get the spinal injections every 3 months, along with trigger point injections in my neck, shoulders, and upper back. If you can’t take something like Motrin PM (or the generic equivalent), try taking the generic stuff that’s just the sleep aid, without the nsaid. Let’s see, it’s Diphenhydramine HCI, usually found in a small dosage, it’s very lightweight, so you can dose it up quite a bit. It will help to take the edge off a bit. Heat helps me, as does water – swimming, or soaking in a hot tub / jacuzzi. If you can’t get that through physical therapy, if you know anyone with a pool and hot tub, beg for permission to use, it helps.

    A neurologist will get you into a pain clinic, which is what it sounds like you need, and you need to talk with someone who will be honest with you about possible surgery – a majority of problems like this cannot be adequately addressed by surgery, but it gets routinely recommended anyway, which accounts for the high failure rate.

  15. says

    Rowan:

    One more thing. If you do get into a pain clinic, here in the States, you’ll be assigned a PMP who oversees your pain medications, and you’ll most likely have to sign a contract, which puts you under federal scrutiny, and you’ll be subject to random piss tests, but you also have to agree to blood and hair tests. They check not only for illegal drugs, but to see if you’re taking your meds in the right amount, and if you come up under what they think you should have in your system, you can be placed under suspicion of dealing drugs. Welcome to pain care in America.

  16. Rowan vet-tech says

    Well, that last bit is extra great, because as a vet tech I do, rarely, accidentally stab myself with our induction meds which include ketamine. I don’t know how sensitive those tests are, though. Ugh.

    I’m definitely sensitive to benadryl; it knocks me right out. I’ll be using that tonight for sure, thank you for reminding me of it.

  17. chigau (違う) says

    Dental story:
    A person I know (Pat) had been without proper dental care for decades.
    They landed a good gig at a company with a DentalPlan.
    Coworkers advised Pat to take advantage and have the teeth looked at.
    An appointment was made and during lunch-break Pat went to the dentist.
    The Hygienist took one look at Pat’s teeth and choking back tears, fled the room to fetch the dentist.
    Dentist took one look and advised immediate extraction of the lot.
    And that occurred.
    Pat says false teeth are the best.

  18. robro says

    PZ, “hot tooth” sounds like what I had. I had valium IV, and highly recommend it. (I learned from a doctor friend sometime later that it’s an amnesiac so you don’t remember what happened.) Good periodontists have lots of tricks that can knock you out cold for the work. Perhaps they aren’t available in Morris.

  19. methuseus says

    Rowan:

    Not knowing the exact nature of your pain, I can only offer some personal anecdotes and recommendations. First is that I’ve heard a bath with Epsom salts can help lessen the pain somewhat. I have had good luck with massage on the affected areas and the areas surrounding them. Sometimes relaxing nearby muscle groups can help affected ones have less pain.

    My other recommendations would be pain relievers as Caine elaborated better than I ever could and, depending on the state you live in, possibly medical marijuana. That comes with its own headaches, of course.

  20. ck, the Irate Lump says

    Travis wrote:

    One of those is dental care which is excluded from the Canada Health Act and coverage varies from province to province.

    Vision care is also excluded for some unknown reason. If you want eye exams or glasses, it’s probably coming out of your own pocket. Even most insurance plans in Canada have little to no vision coverage, and may only barely cover the eye exam if they cover anything at all.

  21. redwood says

    @3 penalfire
    I just had a root canal done on a painful molar. My health insurance through my work place here in Japan lets me pay 30% of the actual cost (which is the same as the national health coverage–everyone gets to do that). That means I paid the yen equivalent of $40 for the first treatment. I’ll have another one in a week and probably will pay $30 and that will be it.
    The key point to the Japanese health care system seems to be that the government controls the amounts charged for various procedures and they keep the costs low, which means that doctors here don’t make great gobs of money but also that you don’t have medical bankruptcies. Sounds like a fair trade to me.