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I HAVE dental insurance, NO ONE FUCKING ACCEPTS IT.
The “in-network” thing is anyoing. As long as the place has a license and hasn’t been a issue, they should be “in-network”.
Having insurance tied to a job doesn’t help either. if you/family member needs specialist care, so you find a fantastic doctor, but oops your job changed insurance provider and now your doc is out of network.
Complaints aside, if you’re actually having trouble finding a dentist; go to your insurance’s website, they probably have a “find a dentist” tool or something.
I hear you. The challenge is what the insurer is willing to pay for the services the dentist provides. At the end of the day, the deal is “we are bringing more patients to you by being in our network, so you’ll take less money for your services in exchange.” And sometimes the numbers just don’t make sense for the doctor to accept.
Yeah, just a 3 hour drive away.
That bad? Do you work remote or something? That’s the only reason I can that your work would go with a provider with no dentists nearby.
Insurance companies designed their policies to maximize profit over patient care. Dentists said fuck that racket
And created their own racket.
a dentist racket
Mine still submits to my insurance, I just have to pay on the day and I get a check in the mail later
This is why dentists in the US decided to not make themselves part of the same system as other medical doctors-- The ADA vs AMA. They get to make their own rules and more importantly, deals to get paid.
And full cash money rules over whatever any insurance company decides to pay you.
Going to the doctor half the time feels like a waste anyways. No matter how sick I am, I’m never given medicine or antibiotics and I’m always told to wait a week to see if it gets worse. It already had to be a big deal for me to go the first time around, I’m basically done after that and resigned to suffering without help. The worst was when I had been perpetually sick with something for 5+ weeks right before Covid first hit, never got anything and doctor was just like, “Yeah, some colds or flus can go for that long.”
For physical injuries though, that shit is important and that seems like something they can treat, but anything else it’s just, “You’re on your own, good luck!”
I hate going to hospitals, especially in cities. They really don’t seem to care unless they can physically see how injured you are. I saw an independent nurse and a walk in clinic before they both said to go to the ER when I tore something inside my abdomen. Waited 15 hours to be seen, struggled to breath without pain, and passed out from pain during the Xray. The Dr said I passed out from anxiety and sent me home with nothing and no advice.
One of the absolute worst experiences I’ve had at a hospital, and all I wanted was to make sure it wasn’t my gall bladder. Of course they also charged the obscene US prices too
What ended up happening with your abdomen?
While working out I apparently tore a bit of some lining that surrounds the organs, it just happened to be near where the gallbladder is. 0/10 would not recommend, breathing and moving hurt a lot.
Jesus. Did they have to do anything to get it to heal, or did it heal on its own? Or is it still ripped?
I was stretching too much after months of not stretching, when I got my new place last year. Suddenly felt a sort of sharp pang of pain in my belly. Scared me, immediately stopped the stretch and curled forward around it.
Later on, noticed I had an umbilical hernia. They had to fix it surgically.
Really freaked me out. Like, I knew the tissues of my body had a tensile strength beyond which they’d fail, but I always assumed those forces would be like from a car crash or something. Not just a stretch.
Definitely a weird feeling to realize we’re all just jello of various consistencies wrapped around bones.
I’m under the assumption it healed on it’s own. The pain is gone and hasn’t come back, although I haven’t lifted nearly as intensely since. I have access to a nurse outside of a hospital so they helped me keep tabs on it, took something around 1.5 months to heal up though.
The dichotomy of how resilient or fragile our bodies are is wild. I like your analogy of various consistencies of jello.
Well on the bright side you found out about the hernia, hopefully before it was a serious issue and got it fixed.
Antibiotics for colds or flu will not help because those are viral, not bacterial. A general doctor should have given you a referral to a specialist. But Antibiotics would be stupid
Maybe. But after 5+ weeks, you run the severe risk of secondary infection. A “cold” that runs that long, isn’t the virus anymore, but the secondary infection taking hold. Antibiotics may not be the right call, but they might be. A “stick it out” attitude on a respiratory infection is the right path, if your goal is pneumonia.
Edit: source- my doctor, when I didn’t want to take the antibiotics for a respiratory infection that I had had for 8 weeks. It cleared within 5 days of starting the antibiotics…
The last time I went to the doctor was over a year ago, and it was because my mouth/throat was in so much pain I called my friend, who lived 30 minutes away, and begged her to come take me to urgent care while bawling my eyes out.
The initial nurse that comes in is this dude, and I hate male medical professionals when I’m male-presenting: it’s like this fucking machismo bullshit. He’s trying to do the thing where they swab your throat or are just looking back there, and he’s asking me to open wide, and I’m trying but I’m in excruciating pain and apparently couldn’t open wide enough.
So he drops his hands in this exasperated/annoyed gesture and goes, “C’mon man, it’s not that bad, open up.”
I lost it. “Get the FUCK out of this room and send the actual fucking doctor in here! How dare you tell me I’m not in fucking pain when I can’t fucking swallow or breathe without tears welling up! Get the FUCK away from me, NOW!!!” Funnily enough, my mouth was open plenty wide after I lost it on him, and he scurried out the room as soon as she got his swab.
Woman doctor comes in a few minutes later, sees me bawling my eyes out while my friend is comforting me. Doctor doesn’t give me any shit while she’s examining me, and turns out, I had a serious infection behind my tonsils, not strep like douchebag kept telling us it probably was while telling me to “man up.”
Doctor gave me some steroids and told my friend that my, “throat was in really bad shape,” and that she was putting in a rush order for antibiotics at the pharmacy. I was to take the pills immediately when we got home, and again roughly 4-6 hours later (this was around 4 o’clock).
She ended our visit with, “Listen, if you take the second pill around 10, and if you’re not feeling any better by 10:30, you need to go to the ER for emergency surgery, those tonsils are gonna go septic.” But “c’mon man, it’s not that bad.” 🙄
The pills worked, I survived, but my blood boils just thinking about the whole situation and how comfortable that dude was in his attitude towards patients in pain.
Good on you for blowing up at that jackass.
What does “coming to Canada soon” mean? Is there an impending change in the system? Or is it the certainty that public health can’t possibly work because the USA is the only major industrialized country that doesn’t want it?
The public health system here in Canada is very broken and the politicians have been pushing to move towards a more privatized system like the US. It’s only a question of time before we get the same problems. Here in quebec my wife has had to get a private doctor because she simply couldn’t see a doctor in the public system anymore.
Good luck with that. I have good insurance in the US and am having to schedule routine appointments 3 months in advance. During my last routine checkup I told my doctor there were several things I wanted to ask him about, and he said something to the effect that we only had 12 minutes but we’ll see how much we can get through. Wtf? I think the problem is that most doctors are corporate employees now. Similar to being public employees but with CEO bonuses and shareholder profits.
From what I’ve seen on here, there are some areas where the same bullshit brainrot has started taking hold
It’s a sentence from the point of view of the person at the doctors (or of the original poster relating with that person) implying an imminent move to Canada.
Too bad the person doesn’t know dental isn’t covered in Canada.
That’s Canada now… Has been for a while… I hurt myself 9 months ago. It took 5 months for an MRI, and I’m still waiting for the specialist. I’m partially paralyzed…
Sorry to hear that, I hope you get treatment soon. Isn’t it amazing how the world thinks our medical system is so great? There have been multiple deaths at the hospital near me of people waiting to see a doctor in emergency… not to mention people I know who would still be here today if the doctors in that same hospital were halfway competent, but since they can’t be sued for malpractice, nothing happens…
Thanks. The worst thing about Canada is that we’re right next to the us. If France was our neighbor, everyone would be upset, but because we’re in a horrible neighborhood, everyone just says ‘better than them’
USians call your system great because we have the same experience and outcome you just described, but we pay thousands of dollars per month per person for it. From that perspective paying way less money for shit care is an objectively better system.
Not true. Last time I needed a scan, I got it in about a week.
The best part is the entire food industry is geared towards selling as much sugar and carbs as possible to produce as much dental decay as possible and as quickly as possible.
No, its geared to be as addictive and pleasurable as possible.
It just so happens that both carbs and sugar are pleasurable, and by coincidence also the cheapest part.
by coincidence
By government subsidies
It is designed to be addictive. This is accomplished by gearing it for simple carbs.
Gearing is a configuration thing.
Judgmental bitch. Dental insurance coverage is so much worse than medical it’s can be basically non existent
Privilege is blinding. The dentist can’t fathom how a “normal” person they are speaking to couldn’t afford to go to a dentist. It doesn’t even register. The dentist then must assume it was pure laziness or apathy.
It is laziness or apathy. If for 30 years you were unable to spare $100 for a single checkup, then you are either sick or suck at managing money. And if you still can’t afford that for 30 years, there are organisations that will do it for free - you just need to reach out to them.
Being unable to put aside $100 for a year, year and a half - sure. Being unable to put aside $100 for thirty years? Yeah, nah.
In addition to the other reasons, there is also the worry of surprise charges. You’ll go in for a $100 checkup, only to find a bunch of other “standard” fees and services tacked on at the end. They’ll act like this is normal, and you’re weird for asking how much it costs up front.
This is twice as bad at the doctor than at the dentist.
Weak argument. You just ask them upfront for the cost or at least brackets. They can act however they want after adding to that cost. You asked upfront, were given the amount and that’s what you can pay. Otherwise all you are doing is letting peer pressure drive your actions. Also, a fear of surprise charges is about as much of an excuse as anything else. You are risking a lot by not doing a checkup in so many years, and “surprise charges” isn’t a reason to not do it.
Have you ever actually tried this? They often don’t even know the brackets up front.
Never had that issue.
So when you asked for a full quote up front, they gave it to you?
It’s not the cost of the checkup I worried about. It was the cost of fixing any problems they find. At that point why bother getting the checkup if I can’t afford that?
Not that it helps people who literally can’t afford it… But dental “checkups” are primarily about doing the cleaning, which is for preventing issues before they get that big. Identifying existing issues is secondary, but the regular dental appointment is doing more actual work than your typical physical examination.
Which is why most dental plans cover regular cleanings entirely, but you need to pay out of pocket for any other work you want. They would rather pay the entire cleaning bill every 6 months than pay part of your root canal once.
It really is expensive to be poor
Regular checkups help prevent issues popping up. Also, you not knowing about those issues doesn’t make them go away. And some can cause you to become sick. Dentistry isn’t just for looks.
Cool. Not being able to pay for the repair doesn’t make them go away either.
Completely ignored the “checkups help prevent issues”. Also, you might catch something that is about to kill you or incapacutate you.
Nearly 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck (https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/living-paycheck-to-paycheck-statistics-2024/), and lots of those struggle to cover their standard expenses. Getting your teeth checked doesn’t help you stay in paying work. If you manage to save a few hundred you’re probably going to spend it on that house or car repair that you’ve been needing for months, or some new clothes for your kids.
And yet they’re still a working class wage slave.
A lot of Dentist retire by 50. They are not exactly wage slaves but I get what you are saying.
Well yes. Certainly they’re near the top of the bottom.
Probably more like petite bourgeois. But still more in common with the person in the chair than the actual bourgeois .
People at my new job talk about how great our dental benefits are. I found a dentist, scheduled a new patient exam (4 month wait). They told me I needed a cleaning and scheduled it for 3 months in the future. Two months after that, they stopped carrying my insurance.
I found another dentist, 6 month wait for an appt this time, was told I needed a cleaning, got a call the following week that they were no longer accepting my insurance.
I’m super grateful for my union job with great dental benefits.
My wife’s union job has terrible dental. I feel like unions aren’t what they used to be.
Is it American?
Yeah, that’s where I live at the moment, I have also lived in Germany and the Netherlands. But if unions are powerless here, what is the fucking point?
I don’t know much about unions there. Ours are really powerful.
Pity the unions - fighting for the good of all workers - forgot to fight for the benefit of people OUTSIDE the union too.
Also my mom’s on the country dental plan now. Yay!
Docs tend to lose sight of the fact that everyone is not able to pay their fees, some even with insurance.
People with mild discomfort (e.g. a persistent cough) fill up most of the emergency rooms where I’m from, since the hospital is free. Unfortunately what this means is if you have a non life threatening problem, you have to wait in the same room as people with colds and flues that should be in bed waiting it out and eating soup.
Meanwhile here is the U.S. I destroyed my ankle falling down a flight of stairs and I never had x-rays or any treatments and couldn’t afford to lose hours at work (where I made $8 / hour), so I bought a cane at Walmart and went to work on my foot. I had a permanent bursa as a result and I never found out what happened.
Years later when I finally had access to healthcare through insurance partially subsidized by my employer, I was getting another x-ray on the same ankle (because one injury makes future injuries more likely) they found out that tendons had ripped bone off during the original injury. :-(
Here in the states, people fill up the ER not because its free… its because they legally cant turn you away without looking at you first…
I’ve been coughing for like 6 months now. Long covid, and I’ve been told it can last over a year.
That’s obviously not what I mean.
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A bad case, yes.
I’m not murican so money isn’t the problem for me.
Its a crippling fear of doctors founded by a single dingle berries mistake over 10 years ago causing a year of problems and a skin transplant., Care to share? So we can learn from your mistakes?
I don’t think its possible to do actually.
It was a mistake cause he removed a little thing from my skin that ended up causing me to be sick for a week cause he didn’t close it up properly, it than went on to come back twice as bad.
If I’d have to turn it into a lesson, maybe triple quadruple check online if your the doctor you plan on going to has zero negative complaints?Woof. So sorry.
I absolutely do not mean to diminish your pain or discount your experience, but every medical procedure comes with risks. Skin closures (sutures or otherwise) can be done correctly in the first place, but it is possible for the suture knot to come untied or for the suture material to break, and infection is the main risk for any procedure that breaks the skin.
To others reading this: the vast majority of physicians are competent professionals that always do the best that they can, but things can go wrong even if they do everything right. If a physician has one complaint against them for a poor outcome, that’s pretty normal. If there are no complaints at all whatsoever, they probably haven’t been in practice long enough for the statistics to catch up to them. If there’s a pile of complaints (especially ones that cite carelessness or callousness) that would be one to be wary of.
Many countries outside America does not cover dentist in social public health services.
They like premium bones or something.
In my country we have public healthcare but not dentists. If you want teeth you have to pay.
The UK’s dental care is also not really covered by the NHS beyond a few emergency procedures, and even when it is (assuming you can get onto an NHS dentist’s register) it costs a significant amount of money (70+ for checkup and dental work) once you turn 18, so I can imagine that most people just don’t bother.
I’ve already resigned myself to getting most of my teeth removed or replaced, as painful as that is, because I spent years without dentist cover thanks to COVID and generally refusing to spend the costs on checkups (as bad an idea that was)
I had dental treatment on the NHS and it was £20 or so charged as a flat fee (so irrespective of what the actual problem was/what needed doing), definitely not £70? If it’s gone up that much since then, that’s absolutely crazy.
EDIT: nvm, just looked it up, you get charged one of 3 ‘bands’ (lowest is £26.80 which is what I was charged, and the highest is £319.10). I never knew it was so pricey, as I ended up having to go private after moving anyway, since nobody was taking NHS patients…
I might need to consider private insurance at this point. What pisses me off is that corpo jobs will offer health insurance but NOT dental, even though most people can probably brave a GP waiting list but everyone has to pay out their arseholes for Dental.
The again, maybe I’m the minority with my fucked up teeth lmao. I’m just thankful my wisdom teeth grew in straight!
I do have insurance, as we’re legally required.
Haven’t been to a dentist for years even tho i need it, the money isn’t there. Insurance only covers it for a small amount if you pay a premium, which i’m not doing obviously.
I went to my childhood dentist after being unemployed and homeless, dad was convinced the government would get me a house and when i lived with him they told me “no, that’s the old system”. He didn’t believe me so he kicked me out because he was so sure of himself.
When i got to the dentist after a couple of years he started pointing out what premium things i needed and how i could afford them after saving the money from the years i didn’t go. I tried to explain to him like an adult that i had lost my savings and was pushed into homelessness and unemployment.
He then decided to get his ego bruised and started calling me names.
I got pretty sick of his childish behaviour and decided to never come back.
I tried a differenr dentist when i was actually ready and could see myself build up the funds again, but i ended up having to move for a job and life has only gotten more expensive while my wage stayed stagnant.
Right now i’m making more, finally but it’s at a job i’m not sure i can physically handle. It’s been 4 weeks now and it’s 4 weeks of backpain and painkillers to keep going.
Get a credit card
Use card to pay for getting your teeth done
Burn the card
Wait 7 years
Repeat till dead
What ?
You can declare bankruptcy every 7 years. I believe that’s what OP was referencing.
I paid $2900 for my mom to get dentures.
I haven’t been to the dentist in probably ten years. Still follow the routine, but, yeah.
I protest the high prices of dental treatment by traveling abroad. It’s not only cheaper, but also a great opportunity to travel.
