I need it. I'm broke, but a lot of my debt is dental bills and now I need more work done. I need some damn insurance. Can anyone recommend a good dental plan?
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I need it. I'm broke, but a lot of my debt is dental bills and now I need more work done. I need some damn insurance. Can anyone recommend a good dental plan?
Pre-existing condition. You may be SOL. My company uses Delta, and I get the basic, which covers mostly preventative.
However, you can get dental discount plans. As always I recommend Assurant Health and http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/. Every state is different in what they can offer though.
Check out Assurant Health made for people with no health or dental plan.
My whole mouth is a pre-existing condition, LOL! But I think the source of the current problem is one of my two remaining wisdom teeth. They won't begrudge me a simple wisdom tooth extraction, would they?
Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.
You'll have to see what they offer. Read the fine print, ask lots of questions! You may be better off with a discount plan if they won't cover you for the work that needs to be done.
Unfortunately, insurance is seldomly something you can use AFTER the fact unless you can get group benefits.
If you're incorporated and have at least 2 employees in your corp. charter, you can potentially qualify for group benefits, FYI. Since you have a production company, I thought you may be incorporated. This could be your ticket.
UCLA Dental Schools offers affordable treatment for people without insurance, but i'm not sure how comfy you'd be with students prodding and poking around in your mouth.
I'm not incorporated. Damn. I guess this is one more reason K needs to marry me! He's about to join the Directors' Guild and they have spankin' benefits. Maybe I'll drag his ass to Vegas for Chanukah. :P
I had my first wisdom tooth yanked at UCLA and they did a great job. Had the second one pulled at UT Memphis Dental School and they did a great job too. I suppose I'll go back to UCLA to get these last two yanked, and hope that clears up the problem. I have to make the money first though, I REALLY hope this swelling goes down so I can go to work. Right now I look like the elephant man.
Clove oil hun! Try it, until you get them yanked ;)
Where do you get clove oil?
Right now I'm about this far from calling up a friend of a friend and getting some cocaine to put on my tooth. I swear the topical application of cocaine is the ONLY thing that's ever rendered me completely free of dental pain. Too bad they don't sell Cocaine Orajel at CVS.
I went to my dentist and asked his billing person for her advice on which dental plan to get.
Clove oil works well! The packed it into my hole after I got a dry-socket from sucking dick the day after my wisdom teeth were extracted. Orth surgeon said it was probably because I'm a smoker, but I didn't tell him about the sucking either. ;)
It will hurt like a BITCH to pack it in. I don't know if I would recommend cocaine, because it often has other additives in it that could further irritate and inflame the area. Unless its the good shit. But it will hurt so much worse after it wears off...the clove oil is good for a while
So where do I get the clove oil? And what do you mean "pack it in"? The problem is that whenever I eat something crunchy like broccoli, I spend the rest of the day with my entire upper right jaw in screaming agony. And this time it's swollen too. It's either that wisdom tooth (which is twice the size of a normal tooth for some reason) or the filling I got about a month or two ago in the tooth right next to it. The dentist said I needed a root canal in that tooth but he filled it instead to save me money, and since the pain is deep inside the gum I wonder if maybe I should've just sprung for the root canal. Or there's the possibility he didn't drill the outside properly and the bite is just messed up. I guess I should go see him.
Oh, and Mike, that is an EXCELLENT idea!
Clove oil should be available @ health stores. I deal w/viataminshoppe.com, & there's vitaminworld.com, wholefoods.com.
I personally have dental 'insurance' through my own dentist. It's really a discount plan, I pay $100.00 a year (includes my mom) & receive discounts for work, such as $30.00 for cleaning. Maybe you could find a dentist that would have that by you, good luck.
Clove oil is good stuff. if you use it for a long period of time (about six weeks) it can actually kill the nerve in the tooth. Also a lot of the non-profit or sliding scale clinics will do extractions for a very low price depending on your income level but most of them have wait lists a mile long. It's still worth a call though.
Good luck!
Have you looked into the Freelancers Union? I found out they just added dental too.
even if oral surgeons do it, wisdom teeth extraction is still covered under dental plans rather than medical ones (which tend to be more expansive) with relatively few exceptions. i had hoped mine was a form of surgery, but it's just another dental procedure. just an fyi if you get dental insurance, although with sufficiently decent dental insurance one can pay as little as 5-10 percent of the complete cost including drugs for afterward.
Mine cost about $250 or so in 2000. Drugs were probably $15 under medical insurance, don't recall. I had excellent benefits back then. Check with the union, what a great idea!
I would go with the school. They have payment plans, sometimes, as well.
For me, to have all 4 of my wisdom teeth surgically extracted at UIC School of Dentistry and Orthodontic Surgery (or whatever the name was) cost me under $800...that was for the initial consult with the dental dept to get referred to the surgery and including being knocked out, all pain meds, and after surgery care.
I'm thinking for 1 tooth, it would cost about $200. If you have no insurance but need work done...I believe they do a sliding scale or payment plans.
I trust my students at the dental school more than private practice. They're super careful and they have super qualified staff watching over them. I've had less problems with the students (and spending pennies on the dollar) than I've had with so called "professionals" who charge up the ass and still do a shitty job.
Hope you feel better soon. I agree with clove oil...get it a natural food store. And, get thee to a dentist very soon. If you are having that much pain, it could very well be an infection (mine was) and you do NOT want an infection in your mouth...for many reasons.
The pain's gone down. For some reason I am in agony whenever I eat lightly cooked broccoli, but everything else is fine. I'll get to a dentist later this week though.
Thanks for the excellent ideas, everyone. I already had one extraction done at UCLA and I think it was about $100. I'll go back there for the other two. Shame I didn't get it done when I was in Memphis, it was only about $75 per tooth there... hm, maybe I'll wait until we go back to Memphis for the holidays.
I had no idea there was a Freelancers Union. I'll definitely be checking that out! Especially since the DGA is going on strike as soon as the writers get theirs resolved, so K won't be able to join until June at least. Damn studios and unions and strikes.