Hepatitis Forums
Hepatitis C Main Forums => Living with Hepatitis C => Topic started by: Lukey on September 17, 2015, 08:45:13 pm
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Hi,
My dentist at Aspen Dental of the last few years or more referred me to a dentist specialist that wanted mt to get $15,000 to $17,000 worth of dental work. I can't afford it, and dentures is for me a much more affordable alternative, but he won't give me that option. Do you think it might be because he's afraid of getting Hep C from me?
I may get dentures at another dentist. for some reason, Aspen Dental will not let me get dentures. He says my teeth "are still viable". What ever the reason, it seems unfair to me to be denied more options.
Joe
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Joe, I have another hypothesis to offer, based on a dental experience I had when I was 21 and a poor newlywed. I had had four deciduous teeth removed, and an excellent dentist had made crowns to replace the lower two. He explained that for the upper two, he could make the visible parts of the crowns out of porcelain, or he could use gold, which would be much less expensive but would show when I smiled. I immediately said, "Gold." He explained again that the gold would show, then handed me a mirror and left the room for a long time. When he returned, I again said, "Gold." He refused to make them!
I moved elsewhere and asked my new dentist if he would make them, mentioning the weird experience I had had with the previous dentist. My new dentist said that dentists are judged by other dentists for their work, so they want to do only what reflects well on them. This new dentist was willing to compromise: he'd use more gold and less porcelain than he preferred, but less gold than the first dentist had supposedly offered.
Because your dentist feels your teeth "are still viable," perhaps he feels he would be committing a sort of malpractice if he sentenced you to dentures when a better option exists. That is far more likely than his being afraid of getting Hep C from you. Does he clean your teeth? If your gums bleed even a little bit during the cleaning, then he's already been exposed to your Hep C. Dentists routinely wear the necessary protective gear -- they are very aware that 2/3 of people with Hep C don't know that they have Hep C!
Gnatty
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I think you should consult some other dentist to get the dental dentures. I just got successful cosmetic dental surgery from the dentist Torrance (http://newsmilesdentistry.com/). His treatment was truly great so I highly recommend consulting him.
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If it's simply a matter of cosmetics keep your teeth. I have dentures and they're not all that and a bag of chips. There are a lot of foods I can no longer eat and they don't really fit all that well not to mention that I sometimes forget to put them in before going places and end up not opening my mouth for any reason. In fact I usually take them out to eat anything including in restaurants.
I went through something similar years ago. I had terrible teeth, but they were real teeth. It was the pain I endured over the years that put me in dentures. When I was first refused dentures I was upset so I decided to stop brushing in hopes that I'd get dentures.. That was one of the stupidest things that I ever did and I paid the price for it with more pain than I can begin to describe. I even became a heroin addict because of the pain. I'm recovered from that now, but it all started many years ago in a dentist office.
If it's a matter of continuous pain that's a whole different story. There aren't many things that hurt more than dental pain and that can drive people to using illicit narcotics and all the problems associated with that.
I hate to say it, but Aspen isn't the only dentist in the world. The last big box dentist I went to could have just as well been selling meat. They were butchers..
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I took the full-reconstruction plan about 12 years ago, and had no $$ to do it on other than credit cards.
Teeth being viable likely means he wants to use them as support structures for bridgework and or crowns.
This brings in a lot of money for dentists. Root canal as well as costly bridgework and crowns is a windfall treatment plan for dentists. As I charged another 6K for the latest root canals/bridgework on credit cards, it was difficult because I didn't earn a lot of money.
12 years later and MOST of those teeth that were being used as support structures for bridgework decayed under the bridges, and the only resort was extraction.
So... me earning very little, plus horrendous credit card maxing, repayment of those over the years leaving nothing left for concurrent dental work, has me currently in a state of having about 5 original teeth left in front at the bottom, and a few crowns and loose bridges on the top row. There are significant gaps of missing teeth as I have had to get the multi-thousand dollar bridgework support teeth ultimately extracted.
Currently still paying 3 credit cards for dental work that no longer exists.
I remember getting my income tax return and getting a root canal on one molar, that was going to be crowned as soon as I saved up enough money to get it done.
By the time I saved the money, the tooth was no longer viable and I had to pay to get it extracted. 1500 dollar root canal, and then 200 dollar extraction.
Ultimately, the whole scenario has been a financially devastating situation for me lasting over a period of 12 years, and currently my teeth look like a nightmare. I have one bridge that is loose and a crown that fell off of one molar in the back leaving a decaying crater in its place that now must be surgically removed. when money allows.
I hear dentures are difficult to get used to, but options are limited as implants are super expensive.
I could have saved myself a decade of financial hell by getting dentures up front, but I was also met with the "we can restore everything" attitude, of which I then was passed around the dentists, their associate oral surgeons, endodontists, periodontists, only to be financially ruined by them.
I recently went into a different dentist to have a couple more "support" teeth removed because the bridge fell out and they had decayed. He wanted me to come back in for a "cleaning"....... as if there weren't more pressing dental issues....
Just all seemed like a great big scam to get me to spend everything I had and didn't have, and to only have somewhat decent teeth for about 2 years after.