Last winter while living in the trailer, my upper right second molar started hurting. It had been over two years since I had seen a dentist. I knew what the problem was, but there wasn't much I could do, but accept the pain.Needing an antibiotic to treat the infection, I had to see a doctor to get a prescription. If the pain had been less and I had been thinking straight, I would have ask the vet.
The medical clinic fee, fiftynine dollars. My face was swollen, eye drooped, blood pressure up from the pain and infection. The MD wanted to see, don't ask me why, he didn't know what he was looking at anyway.
"I need a prescription for penicillin". I was one minute into the four minute visit.
"You have to see a dentist and have that taken out, the infection will only return". Why would I see him if I had the money to see a dentist? He also said, "That looks like it really hurts". Meaning, aren't you going to ask me for pain meds? I gave him a screw you smile, paid the bill and drove to the pharmacy for the penicillin. Pain can make you mean, I do my best to overcome it.
The tooth is hanging in there, I've tried twice to extract it and wimped out. The infection has never returned as well as the initial pain, which is a blessing. I wonder when I will lose this tooth, a month, two, or six? I'll miss it, it's been with me a long time. Why cry about one tooth I say, I have all the others, and some people don't have any. Even still, I'll miss it when it goes.
10 comments:
I've lost more teeth than I cared to. I have naturally weak teeth, inherited from my Mom and Father. Doesn't matter what good care I take of them, I still get cavities, they still decay. I still cry with each loss of tooth. Smiles are important to me and I must say, mine is slowly fading, one tooth at a time and I can't afford to get my broken partial fixed, nor my other cavities taken care of either.
I remember my first filling. I was 9 and my step father took me to a old Italian family friend/dentist. I had a cavity in my back molar. Despite the fact that I wasn't permitted to eat candy, my step dad let me get lectured by this dentist about eating candy and getting cavities. I sat there like a good little girl, agreeing to not eat candy any more and to brush my teeth three times a day.
Step dad wanting me to feel the full consequences for getting a cavity, refused to let me have freezing. So, there I sat, digging my fingers into the dentist's chair as the dentist drilled away the decay and when he hit the nerve, I almost hit the ceiling. The pain is something that I will never forget. Then just before leaving the office, this dentist threatened to spank me if I ever came into his office with a cavity again. Needless to say, if I did get a cavity, I endured the pain just to not have to see him again. I wish he would have just taken me to the vet. lol
How terrible for the both of you to have to endure such misery. My sympathies. More and more I realize how fortunate I was to have loving, dysfunctional, weired parents, if only for a short time. My dad was obscessive-compulsive and my mom was sick all the time but they were not cruel. I got my fair share of "whippings", which I thought (at the time) were excessive, but not truly abusive.
Kudos to you, Susan, for even trying to extract your own tooth. I am such a wimp I could not even imagine me trying to do something like that.
I remember tying a string around a loose tooth when I was seven or so. The other end of the string was tied to the door knob. Shut the door and pull the toothe, right? Simple. It was loose anyway. Well, every time I would shut that door, I would walk with the door. In other words, I wimped out and waited for it to fall out on its own. First and last time I tried tooth extraction.
Don't want to sound racist, Susan, but if we can provide free dentistry and health care for every illegal that crosses the border, why can't you see the doctor/dentist when you need to? The town I live in is at least 60% hispanic and most are illegal. Since I work at the local hospital, I see, first hand, how many have medicaid benefits. It would only stand to reason someone who was born in the USA could get the same benefits. Love yourself enough to take care of yourself.
In general, people get cavitys up to their twenties, then perodontal problems are added in.
Senerity, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with a dentist and your step-father. Stress is also a factor in dental health. Sad to say in this day and age, good health whether phyical or mental is all about money, adding even more stress to those without funds to pay.
Send me your partial, I may be able to fix it without out an impression, depending on this and that, etc. It's illegal for me to fix it(the system wants their cut or else, even if free). It's not illegal for you to have it fixed:)
Yvonne, don't worry about being racist, we all are racist in generalizations. I could write pages on experiences with the health care system. What, twenty years ago I broke my right hand. Call it adult adolescence, boxer fracture. Three doctors(friends), told me to keep a cast on for six weeks. Everything in me told me to take it off. I worked left handed, my work didn't suffer except I was slow. Went to a hand specialest, the first thing he said to me was, "Please don't tell me you've had that hand in that cast for six weeks." I have to laugh about it now, it wasn't funny then.
The next week I went back, had to pickup xrays from another doctor. He said, "I see you've broke your foot(he's holding the xray up looking at it). "No", I said, waving my new cast in the air, "I broke my hand". We went around and around, until I finaly convenced him I had never broken a foot, no matter what the xray said. Another person with my same name had broken her foot. It took me three years to pay off the bill. After three years someone in billing, knowing I payed a little every month, marked the bill paid. Really I had several years to go on that bill. A kindness I'll never forget. I do love myself enough to stay out of the system as much as I can, they scare me in way they think.
sorry bout your tooth. i have been there. i picked up some 88 cent teeth from wal-mart tho. a few pairs even have a gold tooth!!
I use to help people smile and feel good about themselves. Maybe I should get back to it, it's the only thing I do really well anyway.
You fix teeth,Susan? My problem is that two teeth on my partial are broken off and I need two more added. This plate cost me $800 and I just can't afford that again.
I am very humbled by all of this. I know it's vanity, but a smile means everything to me.
The world needs more smile, Susan. Maybe you should get back into it. I remember when I got my partial and the dentist had me smile into the mirror. I lay there, crying and smiling. It was wonderful.
In fact, my smile means alot to others as well. When I lived in town, I would go walking every day. An elderly man stopped me one day and said, "Hey smiley! I don't know what there is about you, but every time I see you, you are smiling and it makes me smile too"
That made my day. It really did.
Can you send me photos of the plate?
What teeth are missing, front of back?
I thought in Canada health care was free.
P.S. in the States, that plate probably cost the dentist fifty bucks to have made, less if the case was sent overseas.
In Canada, health care is free, but not like many think it is. Your doctor's visit is free, hospitalization is free, surgeries are free, except you must pay for the antesthesiologist and anesthetic. Drugs are only free if you are in the hospital. Dentists, eye doctors, prescriptions, glasses, dentures, partials, canes, walkers, assisted living devices you have to pay for. If you are on social assistance, you can get drugs, dental care and glasses for your children for free, but you yourself don't get it for free.
I will send you some pics of my partial. It's the front teeth that are missing. They are the exact same ones that are already on my plate, but on the other side. I had to go with the metal plate because the plastic ones make the roof of my mouth bleed steadily.
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