Dental Reform

I am beginning to believe that there needs to be a dental reform. Now I know I am being an idealist. The reform will never happen. What we need to do is incorporate dental into the medical system. The government would rather cut services then add them and the dentists won't give up the lucrative practice. The average salary after one year in private practice is $100,000 CAN. I'd like to be making some of that. Now it doesn't have to be $100,000 but I'd like a small piece of that.

So why do I think it should be a combined service? If it was then I might not have waited 4.5 years to see a dentist. And it's currently bankrupting me to have the work done. My insurance company pays 100% sort of. They only pay up to last years fee guide... and only up to $2000. I've already paid about $300 in dental fees for services that were not covered. Plus to get the $2000 coverage I have to pay $20 a month through work. So there is another $240. Needless to say it's not exactly cheap.

The last time I was there I had 4 cavities filled in my front teeth. The total for that was $1100. So that's $275 per tooth. You can't tell me that the materials to fill the cavities and the hour that it took really cost anywhere near $1100.

To be continued...

Dentist Visit

Today I was rediscovering my hatred for dentists. Last time I had work done he did nerve damage and I ended up at the ER a week and a half later. Yesterday was the first time I could open my jaw without pain. So today I was back there first thing in the morning. He was doing work on the front teeth. I'm pretty sure both times he had to inject the freezing he hit the nerve. I felt the same weird sensation go through my head and into my ear. Then it just went from bad to worse. The angle they had me on meant I was sliding backwards so I ended up gripping the arms on the chair. That ended up hurting my back and shoulders since all the muscles were tight for over an hour. The dentist knows that I can't keep my jaw open for an extended period of time and what does he do? He wandered out 3x during the appointment. I started to get really angry since I just wanted the work done and over with. It was basically an excruciating hour. When he was almost at the end the freezing started to come out so with certain teeth I could really feel it. I didn't want to tell the dentist because then he would stop... add more freezing... and the whole thing would take even longer. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. 13 hours later and my teeth are still killing me. My lower jaw is slightly bothering me but my front teeth actually hurt. Then I had to go to work. It was entertaining when I was trying to drink the can of Coke. It didn't work so well. Needless to say it's been a long day. Almost makes me wish I had false teeth. Might not hurt as much.