Insanity Descent

The Dentist Wants ★Money★

Yes, I'm aware all businesses need money. Yes, I'm aware COVID is fucking everyone's paychecks. It still doesn't give you the excuse to compromise patient care to make some extra cash.

Let me start from the beginning for those who haven't been closely reading EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY ENDLESS ANNOUNCEMENTS {I'm aware I post too much there and that probably not that many people even read most of those posts}. Anyways, let's dig in!

A couple weeks ago I started getting a little bit of pain in the back of my mouth, and at first I thought it was maybe just a toothache so I didn't think much of it. It didn't hurt much and it went away, and I thought that was the end of it. I was wrong.

Every day it kept hurting worse and worse, and eventually it started getting painful to do things as easy as yawning, talking, eating, etc. I complained to my dad about it and he scheduled an appointment for me to go see the dentist. He told them about my pain but they mainly only wanted to see me because I was overdue for a cleaning. So, he agreed it'd be both a diagnostic and cleaning appointment. My dad and I both thought my wisdom teeth might be coming in, but we weren't sure so we wanted to get an X-ray done.

The dentist took an X-ray but they didn't tell me anything about it and then they cleaned my teeth and sent me out the door. I tried to ask questions and tell them how bad it hurt but they basically just treated me like a TV put on mute and they didn't seem to acknowledge anything I said!

I told my dad who'd been waiting in the car about what happened and he had to call the dentist just to get them to talk about the X-ray. They put us on hold for several minutes before telling us that my wisdom teeth were coming in and they were at the gumline but they wanted to wait for them to fully 'erupt' before they pulled them out so it'd be easier.

They also said that I had some build-up in that area causing inflammation and irritation but since they cleaned it off the pain should go down {it's only gone up, by the way}. They told me that it's easier to get an infection while your wisdom teeth are coming in and told me that while I wait I should brush extra thoroughly to prevent more build-up.

My dad asked about my teeth moving since I have to wear retainers, so my teeth moving even a millimeter is a concern. The person on the phone just said, "The doctor doesn't think there's any risk of teeth movement at this time." What does 'at this time' even mean? Does it mean I have another month? Another week? And what if something DOES move anyways? You gonna pay for another set of braces?

Anyways, after that they just told us to call back if the pain got any worse, told us to schedule a cleaning for 6 months {we didn't, my dad hates routine doctor stuff because he thinks it's all a big money-grubbing scheme and you should only go if you have a problem}, and then hung up.

It's been two days since the appointment and my pain has only increased by a LOT. I used to be able to eat crunchy foods like chips and it'd hurt a lot, but I could still do it just fine. This morning I was eating really soft food for breakfast and it hurt so much my jaw started slowing down more and more until I almost couldn't move it {my last mouthful nearly took an entire minute to fully chew because it was that slow, and even then my spit did a lot of the work}. It stayed like that for about 20-30 minutes after I ate until only the edge went away.

I've been taking just about any OTC pain meds I can get my hands on {but still following the dose instructions and making sure I only take one type of medicine within a 24 hour period so there's no accidental reactions or accidental overdoses} but even so the pain still doesn't go away. Sometimes it takes the edge off a little if I'm lucky but it's still incredibly painful. I'm starting to consider technically overdosing {I mean like... taking 4 pills instead of the recommended max of 3} just to make this pain go away because it's fucking terrible.

I'm constantly starving but I'm too worried about my mouth hurting that I don't wanna eat, and even if I wanna say something I'm reluctant to speak because it'll hurt. If I need to yawn, cough, or even sneeze I do my best to avoid it because it hurts so much. It's causing me a lot of stress and my whole lifestyle is basically just turning into me running from my mouth pain.

What does this have to do with my dentist?

Well... I tried to convey that to them, and like I said they ignored me. Clearly if I have to make detrimental lifestyle changes just to avoid pain there's a serious problem that needs to be addressed. If I have to keep starving myself and downing painkillers, that's gonna be really hard on my stomach {it's recommended you never take ANY pills unless you have food and/or water as well}. The lack of food will leave me malnourished which could lead to other problems if the dentist makes me wait for a while. The stress of avoiding pain could lead to a lot of negative behavior that could seriously hurt me later.

With all that in mind, what's the point of making me wait to have my wisdom teeth pulled? Just so it's easier to take them out? Just get someone more skilled if you're worried. What also makes me nervous was they said that they'd go consult some guy to see IF he thought he could take out my wisdom teeth if my dad and I called back. If you got a guy who goes on a case by case basis on IF he can take out teeth, that implies either sometimes the teeth are just too deep for anybody without extensive surgery or he's a newbie. If it's the latter, I do NOT want that guy performing the surgery. I already hate and am scared of almost anything that has to do with doctors and even suspecting the doctor is inexperienced does not need to get added on.

Also, if the guy is a newbie, that means either the other oral surgeons won't be there for a while or he's the only one they've got. Either way, they obviously want him to do it so it can be THEIR agency pulling the teeth, not someone else. Why? Because they want the money. They don't care that it's causing me all this pain, they just care that their guy's the one pulling the teeth in the end because they want the money. And even with COVID ruining everyone's cash flow, that does not give you the excuse to let someone suffer and be in pain literally 24/7 just so you can turn a profit from them. Even if their guy says he could do it, I think I'd try to get it done somewhere else just so I don't support their business.

The only reason we even go there is because they're the only people in the entire CITY that take our insurance, but ONLY for people under 18 {my dad has to see a dentist in a town that's a 2 hour drive out}. The only reason I got braces years ago was because my teeth were so screwed up I qualified for a volunteer program where an orthodontist would see one patient for free so they could get braces. If I'm lucky, maybe there's something like that for people getting their wisdom teeth pulled but I might be forced to stick with my dentist just because I CAN get it done there, even if I don't WANT it to be them.

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