I got a quote at the dentist that my mouth would cost like 20k to fix (it’s really bad, every generation of my family before me has no teeth). I really just want to not look like the way I do when I smile, as I’m missing a front tooth. I also have a recurring infection that I keep delaying at the ER because Medicaid covers the antibiotics but I can’t actually afford the dentist. I’ve tried looking for dental schools but in my area there isn’t a program that offers the free thing if you’re a test dummy for a student. I’m not sure what to do and my worry is that if the infection gets bad enough I’ll just have to accept early death due to lack of care. In the USA if it’s not obvious enough already.
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Heard about people who went down to Mexico and South America.
A friend’s mom flew out to Turkey. Even with airfare and hotel, it came out cheaper than doing it here.
Just talked with a friend from Mexico about this. I live in California so it wouldn’t be too expensive to get there, apparently there is a highly rated practice right across in Tijuana. Gonna try and see if any dental schools can help me, and if not I’ll be going abroad for the first time.
I don’t know shit about it but medical tourism, or in your case dental tourism.
If you’re in the US I know that people often go to Mexico for it but that’s the extent of my knowledge.
What a wonderful country America is when you have people travelling to developing countries to be able to afford access healthcare!
I’d be looking at messageboards that are US “expat” ones (ick!), especially for Mexico/South America or for the westoids living in Mexico. Just hold your nose before you go into one of them. I wouldn’t be particularly trusting of Reddit for this tbh because it’s too astroturfed however tightly moderated communities I would put some degree of trust it (although it can be difficult to determine if the mod team is captive to particular business interests without digging into its backstory and doing extensive research so if I was going to use any subreddit I’d be using it as a springing off point rather than a primary source of reputable info). Also try to find more recent posts that are less than 2 years old, less if possible - practices can change hands or they can become very renowned and prestigious amongst medical tourists and so the might have jacked up the price immensely by the time you are looking at visiting them, so outdated info is less than ideal. Not entirely untrustworthy but the older the info is, the more you want to do your research.
Also try to get a specific dentist’s name where possible instead of just the name of a practice. Sometimes a practice is good and it brings in the tourist bucks so it expands and they take on new staff to deal with the demand and the quality starts to slip as they decline from the “cheap but really good quality of service” to the “starting to chase tourist bucks and becoming a franchise that is trading on their brand because they got noticed by the dreaded expat”.
The whole arrangement sucks but you need your teeth and there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism etc.
You could die from a mouth/tooth infection, so maybe get quotes on just that particular problem to be fixed.
I know it’s not as simple as “just get care” but it kinda is “get care or risk death.”
Dental and orthodontic schools probably have a need for “hard cases” so widen your search for that. Another good term to look for is “sliding scale” fees.
Also, yeah, Mexico has some good doctors and dentists. There are also some frauds / psuedoscientists / low quality options so do your research and have someone with medical or dental experience to double check that the doctor or dentist you choose in Mexico is legit and their marketing materials don’t raise red flags.
Recurring infection might be from physical but stable cause, e.g pericoronitis from partially erupted wisdom tooth. So infections can be cleared up with antibiotics and don’t progress if they’re stopped in time. In general yeah, infections in your head are not good and you’re rolling the dice.
Sliding scale completely slipped my mind here somehow, thank you. Yes, my priority here is definitely getting the abscess sorted out before all else just to be safe.
oh shit if it’s a recurring abscess get that drained ASAP. good luck
Maybe widen the search for dental schools, even if you have to travel a bit away it may still be the cheapest option. Some people fly to another country for cheaper care as well, but that’s still quite expensive.
Yeah, for the moment I’m going to keep seeing what’s reasonably close to my area and hoping they’ll be able to work with me
if you haven’t had dental care in several years there might be some charity kinda shit specifically covering that.
Any dental schools in your area?
There is one up here, but from those I have talked to who have tried it, they still had to pay around 1200 bucks which unfortunately is still too much for me.
$1200 is in the insurance range! I bought dental insurance for wisdom teeth extraction (surgical). $60/m, off the top of my head it will pay out 70% of the operation up to $2.5k a year. The yearly maximums don’t go much higher than that. Extractions will still cost me a couple hundred bucks but much less than sticker price. But to prevent people gaming the system like I am and buying insurance only after they develop problems, they have a waiting period of 6 months before you can use it. You should see if the dental school accepts insurance and start shopping for plans.
I’ll definitely keep this in mind! Thank you!
I got a dental savings plan (Carington POS, I think) off this site some years ago when i needed to get some teeth pulled and it did end up saving me like $200.
https://www.dentalplans.com/dental-savings-plans/
When shopping, I would see what the options are, the prices, and check the reviews of places in your area that take the plan. Unfortunately, the sort of places that tend to take these plans don’t usually have good reviews. I wasn’t happy about the place I went to, but they at least got the teeth out.
Once the infection is gone there’s always pliers and a scraping tool. I did a few of my own teeth. Its not fun or comfortable but if you just take your time and find something good to watch you can get it done.
oh goodness you are a brave soul, just imagining this makes me shiver lmao. but good to know there’s options if it gets desperate.
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You could try looking for dental clinics near you, some offer limited things like fillings, cleanings, extractions, if your abscess ever gets really, really bad and you manage to make it into an ER before your demise they’ll pull it then, like 100-500 to pull a tooth (in most places) but 500k+ to save someone with a brain infection and potentially needing assistance for life, the whole thing is cruelty not ‘saving money’ bullshit.
Could try getting the abscessed tooth pulled, when I lived in CA I got it done at a low income dental clinic for about that including xrays and the numbing shots. You’ll be on your own for follow up care though depending the place. For pain alternate ibuprofen and Tylenol is good, along with some drops of oil of eugenol. Oil of eugenol I want to say is like 10 dollars but one bottle lasts years.
Afaik there’s no free dental school programs for patients in the US, best they do is about 30-50pct of private practice prices, they’re also really selective on who they choose for a patient and some places have restrictions. When I lived in CA you had to live within 60mi of the clinic and be over 55 for the one nearest to me, like 300mi away at the time, and where I live now they used to exclude patients with certain health conditions, but now they simply aren’t accepting patients at all. They also take longer, the appointments are longer and split up, they’re booked out further in advanced (not vs my rural area where I’d be waiting years on end for a private practice appt I will never be able to afford), for example I started back in January to deal with an abscess, the root canal itself won’t be done until May, and everything else probably not June.
