Going Without Teeth In America
By James Donahue
The last time I went to a dentist was a few years ago when I had an infected wisdom tooth that was making me sick. I went to a regular dentist for a referral to an oral surgeon. The oral surgeon pulled two teeth and soaked me for something like $3,000. The regular dentist got his share just for looking in my mouth.
I had a little money in savings then so I could pay the bill. But it was such an extravagant bill I decided that it was going to be the last dental visit I was going to make in my lifetime. Going to the dentist is for the very wealthy, a social group that I do not belong to.
There was a time when I was young that going to the dentist was feared because it always meant pain. The price was never that bad. I remember not too many years back when getting a cavity drilled and filled cost something like eight dollars.
I was going to that same dentist when my employer began offering dental insurance. It was the first time in my life I had ever had such insurance. So when I went to the dentist to have another cavity drilled and filled, I proudly reported that I had dental insurance. That day my bill was $40 and my co-pay was $20. My personal cost for having a cavity fixed had more than doubled because I had insurance.
When we were in Arizona in 1996 I had a serious tooth ache and went to a dentist in Holbrook, at the edge of the Navajo Nation. That dentist fixed my problem and installed a crown. His bill was $65.
In 2001 after returning to Michigan, I had another tooth ache and went to a dentist to have it fixed. He wouldn’t look in my mouth until I had my teeth cleaned. The cost of the cleaning was $100. Then the dentist looked in my mouth and called in a specialist to pull the tooth. I paid another $300. My option was a trip to a nearby city to a root canal specialist and then getting a crown. The price was going to be over $3,000. I chose to have the tooth pulled.
Before going into permanent retirement I worked for a while at a weekly newspaper that offered dental insurance. I used the insurance and the money from my job to get as much repair done to my teeth as possible. It involved a couple of root canals, crowns and a bridge.
It wasn’t a month after I retired that the bridge broke and one of the crowns popped loose. I cemented everything back together with crazy glue. The crown held but the bridge only lasted a few months. I went around without any front teeth for a year or two so I didn't smile much. And that was hard to do because I have a sense of humor that keeps my funny bone tickled most of the time. Consequently most everybody I know also knew I didn't have any front teeth.
Before she died, my wife discovered a retired elderly dentist operating in our community who was offering low cost dental service on the side. We both managed to get some badly needed dental work done and paid for. He pulled the rest of my upper teeth and replaced them with dentures. So smiling was no longer a problem.
My wife died before I could get back to this dentist and get my lower teeth extracted. I am still struggling with what is left of them.
Going around without front teeth used to, and may still have an effect on a person’s social standing in a community. But as more and more people find themselves in the same boat as I am, it is getting quite common to see people, many of them younger than I, also appearing in public without all of their teeth.
The teeth left in my head are either broken or dead from old root canals. Three teeth are broken off so I just have the roots showing. I am on a fixed retirement income and unable to pay the high price of having the other teeth pulled and then buy dentures. I had high hopes when President Obama presented a health care package for Americans that it might include dental services. By the time the conservative element got through picking at Mr. Obama's plan, it clearly lacked dental coverage.
I have since watched the battle raging in Congress and the Senate over health care. Once the Obama plan went on the books we all thought it was a good start, and that future legislators could build on it. But then Donald Trump came to power and any thought of a better dental plan went on the back burner for at least another four years.
There are now some dentists in my area who contribute to free dental services on certain days of the month. You might imagine how crowded those offices are on those free service days.
It is sad to think that this great nation has fallen into this form of general disgrace.
By James Donahue
The last time I went to a dentist was a few years ago when I had an infected wisdom tooth that was making me sick. I went to a regular dentist for a referral to an oral surgeon. The oral surgeon pulled two teeth and soaked me for something like $3,000. The regular dentist got his share just for looking in my mouth.
I had a little money in savings then so I could pay the bill. But it was such an extravagant bill I decided that it was going to be the last dental visit I was going to make in my lifetime. Going to the dentist is for the very wealthy, a social group that I do not belong to.
There was a time when I was young that going to the dentist was feared because it always meant pain. The price was never that bad. I remember not too many years back when getting a cavity drilled and filled cost something like eight dollars.
I was going to that same dentist when my employer began offering dental insurance. It was the first time in my life I had ever had such insurance. So when I went to the dentist to have another cavity drilled and filled, I proudly reported that I had dental insurance. That day my bill was $40 and my co-pay was $20. My personal cost for having a cavity fixed had more than doubled because I had insurance.
When we were in Arizona in 1996 I had a serious tooth ache and went to a dentist in Holbrook, at the edge of the Navajo Nation. That dentist fixed my problem and installed a crown. His bill was $65.
In 2001 after returning to Michigan, I had another tooth ache and went to a dentist to have it fixed. He wouldn’t look in my mouth until I had my teeth cleaned. The cost of the cleaning was $100. Then the dentist looked in my mouth and called in a specialist to pull the tooth. I paid another $300. My option was a trip to a nearby city to a root canal specialist and then getting a crown. The price was going to be over $3,000. I chose to have the tooth pulled.
Before going into permanent retirement I worked for a while at a weekly newspaper that offered dental insurance. I used the insurance and the money from my job to get as much repair done to my teeth as possible. It involved a couple of root canals, crowns and a bridge.
It wasn’t a month after I retired that the bridge broke and one of the crowns popped loose. I cemented everything back together with crazy glue. The crown held but the bridge only lasted a few months. I went around without any front teeth for a year or two so I didn't smile much. And that was hard to do because I have a sense of humor that keeps my funny bone tickled most of the time. Consequently most everybody I know also knew I didn't have any front teeth.
Before she died, my wife discovered a retired elderly dentist operating in our community who was offering low cost dental service on the side. We both managed to get some badly needed dental work done and paid for. He pulled the rest of my upper teeth and replaced them with dentures. So smiling was no longer a problem.
My wife died before I could get back to this dentist and get my lower teeth extracted. I am still struggling with what is left of them.
Going around without front teeth used to, and may still have an effect on a person’s social standing in a community. But as more and more people find themselves in the same boat as I am, it is getting quite common to see people, many of them younger than I, also appearing in public without all of their teeth.
The teeth left in my head are either broken or dead from old root canals. Three teeth are broken off so I just have the roots showing. I am on a fixed retirement income and unable to pay the high price of having the other teeth pulled and then buy dentures. I had high hopes when President Obama presented a health care package for Americans that it might include dental services. By the time the conservative element got through picking at Mr. Obama's plan, it clearly lacked dental coverage.
I have since watched the battle raging in Congress and the Senate over health care. Once the Obama plan went on the books we all thought it was a good start, and that future legislators could build on it. But then Donald Trump came to power and any thought of a better dental plan went on the back burner for at least another four years.
There are now some dentists in my area who contribute to free dental services on certain days of the month. You might imagine how crowded those offices are on those free service days.
It is sad to think that this great nation has fallen into this form of general disgrace.