Do you have current dental care?

How is the medical treatment of your teeth? Is it up to date? Do you have
dental insurance, or do you just pay out of pocket?

and my teeth need it bad.

God knows we care enough about people not to have the notion of socialism in people's heads.

:sarcasm:

reinterpreted: people have no right to organize to help each other out so corporations can rape us all.

You know what would be awesome? If we do it just that without the government. Just help each other.

health care plans,:sarcasm: but aren't afforded the same luxury. :grr: Why can't we get what Federal employees/members of Congress and the President and Vice President get, through our tax dollars? I have never understood that! :argh:

...goddamn dentist are too EXPENSIVE to pay cash without insurance and sometimes even if you do happen to have a policy most only pay but 50/50 so you're gonna pay out the ass regardless. :evilfrown:

... just got a bill from the hospital for an ER (puking migraine/CAT scan) visit in May ...

My plan paid $63 dollars.
My portion is $1800 !!!


:wow: :mad: :wtf:

And my teeth need major work, can't afford it, and don't want to hear it from the dentist so I haven't had a cleaning (the only thing that gets covered decently) in 3 years.

What's dental insurance? :sarcasm:

While we're at it, what were "benefits?" :sarcasm:

but I still have my dental work done. Fortunately I don't have children so I can make decisions based on what I can give up for me and don't have to worry that I will be taking away from the family (last 2 years worth of work equals about $6000)!!?!?!?!

I would have dental insurance, but you have to have it for at least a year for it to pay its small portion of any major work. I just send my dentist a check every month, but I will be able to chew when I'm 80 and that's important to me.

... paid $182.70 for a teeth cleaning and a one minute exam by the dentist, who tried to sell me on a $1400 cap for one tooth (that he screwed up by refilling it three times).

This dentist took over my old dentist's practice when he retired. I dislike him and his methods and need to ask my friends for some recommendations. I want to switch and don't want this guy anywhere near my mouth.

because bad work can lead to worse problems down the road. i thank god i have a good dentist and a mother with $$$.
but then she did not teach us proper dental care as a kid and she made us go to her childhood sadist dentist. SO THERE MOM!

progress. In fact have an appointment Monday - weeeee.

Coincidence! We have Tricare (isn't it called Delta or something now?) and my daughter is going to the Dentist this morning.

Tricare is the cover name for military retiree medical/dental coverage. Delta is the name of the company picking up the dental.

You have to go to certain participating Denditsts, and last year, I found it actuallly cost me less to go to a different dentist and pay the whole bill myself. The darn participating Dentists just add the amt. the ins. would have paid to their fees! I even called my husbands employer to complain about the dental practices, and I was told the Dentists are on an honor system and set their own fees.

It's all BS!

and I have never had a cavity.

are covered. F*cking bullshit. My husband's crown was less than 5 years old (it kept falling out because prior dentist was a quack) so our insurance WOULDN'T PAY for a replacemnt or repair. Does anyone how how expensive that procedure is??? (Rhetorical).

His current dentist is a really nice guy and halved the expense for us.

I'm suprised that the poll is showing near equal numbers of persons needing treatment with and without
dental insurance... and that it is showing a majority have untreated dental health issues!

exams, x-rays, and cleanings. No fillings, crowns, nada. We had much better dental (and vision) insurance at my hubbys last job, though that job paid diddly squat compared to what hubbys current job pays. But it's a trade off that we still can't afford...

I'd pull my own tooth before I'd give a dime of my money to a dentist. Dentists are lowlife IMHO.
Maybe if they tipped better I might be able to afford to go to one.

I am self-employed and pay for all of my own insurance. My agent told me a long time ago that dental insurance was a rip off and typically the premiums exceed the benefits; he recommended we pay as we go, or just buy a cheapo flat rate plan, which we did.

That plan (about $13.50 per month for my family of 4) did help a lot when I needed some work done a few years back, and it has paid for cleanings and checkups along the way.
But almost no one takes this insurance anymore, and my dentist just retired last month. If I want to continue to use this insurance I will have to drive quite a ways.

Also my daughter just started on her orthodontic treatment, which is so expensive. My cheapo insurance is covering about $800 of the $5000+ it will cost me over the 2 years.

I wish there was affordable dental insurance for individuals, I would have some.
But in the meantime we'll just continue to pay the outrageous dental bills when have to.

Of course, I can afford what it covers. I can't afford what it doesn't cover and that is what I need!

Dental is often not classified as healthcare and the pain and suffering that goes with
untreated painful teeth is unnecessary suffering.

Near 30% are treating dental treatment like an optional expense, and of course it would
be as no minimum wage in the universe takes in dental treatment as part of its foundation.

Minimum wage is below the poverty line, and then dental treatment is an option.

should not be considered optional healthcare. Nor should optometric exams. Nor should mental health care. But that's the way it is when it's all driven by the insurance companies.

He did great work on my teeth for years. I probably shouldn't have left the relationship but his work still stands..

:-0. Did your dentist say "open" a lot? Was it irritating?

Marriage for healthcare, the new economics of husbandy... :-)

should make anyone in the dental field cry (those who really care about the state of American teeth anyway).

I pay out of pocket although I am ensured through a state university group plan. The dental plan they offer is not attractive. You end up paying more for the coverage than you do without. It's a rip-off. My sister is in a similar insurance situation, ensured by a state university in another state, and gets full dental coverage. So unfair.

So I go to the dentist and pay bills in full, mainly because all our Dad's teeth fell out from peridontal disease (and because he could not afford much destistry in his life), and I see what he's going through. He is having a terrible time with his dentures and really has a hard time eating now, although in every other way he's in pretty good shape.

Whenever I pay for the dentist, I think to myself, "this is a luxury I'm willing to give myself"--A luxury?!? That's what dentistry has come to in this country. A luxury, instead of basic medical care.

38% are not able to afford dental care at all,
and 61% are not getting effective treatment. Likely all 61% are in
a little pain, as they would not know work was needed otherwise,
and then we have 61% of americans experiencing a sort of pain that
is very troubling, affecting relationships, making people crabby...
the social effect of systemic pain surely makes tempers shorter at
the very least.

I am now curious about vision care as well, as if all disabilities
are now new luxuries, outsourced and privatized, rather than vital
public goods.

Britain is dismantling its public dental as well, considering dental
a luxury seems the new neocrim ideals. So when cars are necessary
and cheap gas is worth dying for, dental treatment is a luxury.

I'm really shocked that so many are not getting proper care, it is
disturbing and a sign of public health problems to come.

you just deal with it

i do think we should have universal dental, medical, and vision care but i don't think chronic pain is an excuse for being "crabby," and i suffered from incurable chronic pain for two decades

there's a point at which being "crabby" is a personality choice apart from having pain

everyone you know "of a certain age" hurts somewhere, it's the price of not dying young

Cannabis should be legal, so people have a backup painkiller.

I agree with you, when it comes to bothersome pain, but there are some kinds of pain,
nerve and bone pain that are completely exhasting, and people are taking voluntary
suicide to end chronic back pain, would they need to if they could have opium?

3 cleanings a year at no cost. I pay little for most fillings, but do pay a bit for a non-metal crown.

I had a root canal in January and thats all used up now.

but don't have the money. Maybe some day! Till then I'll just deal with the aches. It's not unbearable.

When the pain gets too bad to handle, I find the money somewhere.

i've got two teeth left on the bottom, and according to my dentist- the best one i've had, and only i/2 block from home, the tops will need to go within a couple years.

i've taken lousy care of my teeth/gums, and i've long had an aversion to dentists- when i was a child, our dentist didn't believe in novacaine for children, preferring to rely on leather arm/leg restraints.

I took my younger brother to an exam one day, I was like 10 and he was 7. Turns out, novacaine doesn't work on him, but the dentist didn't believe him - even though my mother, who was also his patient doesn't react to it either. He had 2 cavities filled, 45 minutes of screaming.

It took many years before either of us went to a dentist again, and I have to have the gas, which is an extra charge.

I have to buy my own health insurance and dental is not readily available.

major work done.
We only keep the dental because of the kids.

But Dental Care Coverage is never that much.

Last year, out of pocket, with no major procedures, I spent about $300.

Numerous fillings and god knows what else. I don't have dental insurance but I do need several thousand dollars worth of work to save the teeth I have left.

A friend introduced me to a dental school that was able to do my "backlog" of work without
bankrupting me, and managed to save 6 teeth that certainly would have gone without help.

Dental schools do good work, its double checked and i was extremely happy to have multiple
dentists (trainees) involved in making sure it was suitable.

i've never heard anyone who had it say they got decent coverage, you do just as well going out into the country or into mexico to find a dentist who charges a fair price

Don't mention dental care to me. I have never had dental insurance, but I visited my dentist three times a year for cleanings and routine care for over twenty years. I brushed and flossed faithfully, but I still lost teeth to periodontal disease.

In the last seven years, I've spent over $12,000 out of pocket for dental care, and now another $900.00 procedure is recommended.

Dental care is little better now than it was fifty years ago. IMO, they should have come up with a cure for periodontal disease by now.

My teeth are in pretty good shape. I go for a cleaning once a year and luckily that's all the dental work I have needed for quite awhile.

I have Dental Insurance but have yet
to go in ... It's been so long I'm very nervous .

I can't get the anesthesiologist that passed me the gas in Feb paid on my medical yet, even though they say it is an In-network, Out of network dispute which is moot because we have radiologist/anesthesiologist/pathologist auto coverage (since the patient doesn't get a choice in those). They haven't paid my son's speech therapist going back to last november even though we have a special rider to cover him.

Our dental insurnace pays fast and accurately, and I'm going to get some work done late this year or early next.

pays 100% for exam/cleaning but only 50% for fillings, crowns, and the like. I just had a crown put in last week -- total cost $950, and I had to pay $500. I have one of the HSA's the Bushies have been pushing, so I was able to use pre-tax dollars from the savings account.

I pay for it myself and have spent a fortune. :-( I'm very particular about my teeth because when I was a teenager they were in bad shape and after going thru so much to get them all perfect I intend to keep them that way. :D

148 votes