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I'm 26 years old and have no dental insurance besides what I get from Illinois state DHS office. which means as an adult i doesn't cover much of anything besides exams. At this point I don't have any real tooth pain besides a random sharp throb the disappears after a few minutes and doesn't come back for a week or three. My problem is I have teeth that are decaying and broken, making it hard for me to eat much of anything. I can hardly sleep for fear that I'll wake up with bits of broken tooth in my mouth (which has happened to me twice). This morning I woke up to a back tooth with a crack in it. It's not painful in any way but its there and annoying and has scared me.
I'm not sure what I can do at this point. My fiance and I live in a small apartment and he's the only working and makes just over a 1,000 a month. what he makes goes into the apartment via rent, food, laundry and other necessities. we don't have the money to pay for me to get my teeth fixed. But I'm loosing weight (I have dropped from 140 down to 120 and I'm tiny as it is at 5 feet even) and I'm not sleeping much. I have a HUGE fear of the dentist (bad dentist as a kid scared me for freaking life)
my question is: How much do dentures plus extractions cost. can I be put under fully for this?
I have no idea what it costs in your local area, but I have some thoughts...
Yes, you can be put out for the extractions. Although it is a bit more expensive, I strongly encourage you to have an oral surgeon do the extractions. They work better and quicker and can deal with issues that may arise (like a broken root tip) on the spot.
At your age, traditional dentures (called 'immediate dentures' or 'over dentures'... based on the area of the country) may be all you can afford. You will be pushed to have implants (very strongly recommended) but the cost is prohibitive. To save money, I suggest a denturist. There really aren't a lot of good ones so do some internet homework and find one who dentists refer to and is very properly accredited.
One last thought... see if you can get a dental college to do the work for free by students. If this fails, call all oral surgeons and dentist in your area and see if they accept charity patients.
Are you talking about your top or bottom teeth? Bottom dentures are very difficult to keep cemented in your mouth so I hope you are talking about top teeth. My dentist told me that top teeth hold onto the bits of food better than the bottom and that causes them to decay faster, so we pulled 14 top teeth and I got an immediate denture 3 weeks ago. Extractions aren't cheap; sometimes over $100 per tooth. You can be sedated. I was orally sedated and then given nitrous (laughing gas) to knock me out. It did a good job but I could still hear some cracking as he pulled my teeth. I don't remember much more than that. I took a selfie when they woke me up and I don't remember taking it.
Dentures are available in several different grades like economy, better, best and professional grade and each has a different starting price.
I suggest you visit and join a website I found Dentures A New Smile that has been a big help to me. Lots of available information there and members willing to help you with any questions or information you seek.
Getting dentures is not easy but in the long run once everything has healed is a much better alternative than keeping your teeth.
This is the kind of thing DHS should be helping with, and it's too bad they don't pay more. Don't be hasty about the dentures, though. It's possible that you can get a bridge and your remaining teeth restored.
Local universities in this area are always advertising for patients for their dental schools; try the nearest college or university in your area.
So I finally got more information and my health plan from DHS. I'm with Blue Cross and they do cover the dentures (thank god). I really am not comfortable with a student working on my mouth. I understand that's what they are going to school for but I would rather someone who's gotten their degree and been working a number of years in my mouth, over a student still learning.
As far as I know it should only be the top teeth as those are the ones with the broken teeth ( my very front upper tooth is pretty much gone). I also already have a partial which still has wires on it which I got when I was 13 and thats the other very front tooth.
my issue now (since I finally got the health plan come through) is I still have a fear for a dentist and the pain. five years ago I went to a dentist and they wanted to remove a wisdom tooth (which has since come through because I couldn't afford to go get it extracted) and I asked to be sedated and be asleep for it and they flat out told me no. I get very very anxious even thinking about the dentist, I have a VERY low pain tolerance and I'm terrified of needles so I would feel better to be put to sleep. But I keep getting told that most dentist wont do that. Is this true? Is there any way I can explain to the doctor to put me to sleep?
Last edited by tinkertay; 01-05-2016 at 04:06 AM..
Lots of dentists/surgeons will "put you to sleep". Just call around and ask. Many surgeons prefer to sedate patients for surgeries since it makes the experience for everyone involved so much better.
So I finally got more information and my health plan from DHS. I'm with Blue Cross and they do cover the dentures (thank god). I really am not comfortable with a student working on my mouth. I understand that's what they are going to school for but I would rather someone who's gotten their degree and been working a number of years in my mouth, over a student still learning.
As far as I know it should only be the top teeth as those are the ones with the broken teeth ( my very front upper tooth is pretty much gone). I also already have a partial which still has wires on it which I got when I was 13 and thats the other very front tooth.
my issue now (since I finally got the health plan come through) is I still have a fear for a dentist and the pain. five years ago I went to a dentist and they wanted to remove a wisdom tooth (which has since come through because I couldn't afford to go get it extracted) and I asked to be sedated and be asleep for it and they flat out told me no. I get very very anxious even thinking about the dentist, I have a VERY low pain tolerance and I'm terrified of needles so I would feel better to be put to sleep. But I keep getting told that most dentist wont do that. Is this true? Is there any way I can explain to the doctor to put me to sleep?
For a single extraction, most dentists would hesitate and discourage you from anything more than mild sedation. But for multiple extractions, a heavier sedation is usually offered, if you don't ask them first. Since you'd be getting several teeth pulled, you should definitely make sure they plan on a heavier sedation. By sedation, I mean - you're not having this done in a hospital under general anasthesia where you have to be intubated and spend a few hours in recovery, and feel sick and groggy for the next two days. Instead, you get either pills that you take around 20 minutes before the scheduled procedure, or an IV during it, and this makes you basically hypnotized and in a sort of semi-conscious trance state. This way they can still instruct you to open wider, or tilt your head to the side more, and you can comply - but you are totally distanced from the situation - it's almost as though it's happening to someone else and you're simply observing it. And when it's all over, you don't remember it at all. You'd need someone to drive you home; you'd be groggy for several hours, and you'd wake up needing pain medication.
Extraction of several teeth at once IS painful and you WILL be swollen for days, to even weeks. But the alternative is to continue being in the kind of pain you're in now, not eating, not sleeping, for who knows how many months or even years. My husband had 22 teeth extracted all at once. Every single one of them was rotten. He was in agony for three days following it. And then sore for a couple of weeks. And then merely annoyed because the temporary dentures weren't fitting properly and he had to keep going back to get them relined and trimmed.
Fast forward a year - he has a gorgeous smile, upper and lower implant dentures, his breath no longer smells like dog crap (it really did smell like that), and he can eat anything he wants, even bite into apples, which he insisted he didn't like for years simply because it hurt his teeth too much to try and he was ashamed to admit it.
The pain of recovery is not easy - but it's much shorter than the pain of NOT getting it done. Plus recovery doesn't last all that long, compared to how long NOT getting it done can last.
If there is a Dental College in your town or city, it might be a good idea to contact them for some reduced cost dental care. I did so in my city of San Francisco some years ago before I had dental insurance. All work done was completed at about 50% of what I would have paid at a dental office. The work they do is probably better than most dentists, since there are supervising dental professors at each operation. The root canal I had done , was so good , my new dentist actually commented on the high quality of work performed by the dental student.
Check into it. Also, they typically have payments plans available to help if you have financial problems now.
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