DUmmies Discuss Free Dental And Self Dentistry

[GOBUCKS]

Avalux  (1000+ posts)        Sat Aug-15-09 10:10 AM
Original message
Teeth - The Worst of US Healthcare.
Many health insurance plans DO NOT cover dental care - I know I have to buy this separately and it's expensive. Not only is coverage expensive but deductible and out-of-pocket costs are also expensive. As a result, there are vast numbers of children and adults who never go to the dentist so when they have a dental crisis, drastic measures are taken, like pulling one's own teeth with a wrench. This sort of thing should not happen in this country.

I feel very strongly all children should have free dental care from the day they're born. Twice a year cleanings should be without charge (for everyone for life); fillings and any type of care to prevent loss of teeth and infection should be affordable. Remember the little boy who died from an abscess because he didn't receive the care he needed?

Healthy teeth are so very important and I don't think enough attention has been paid to this area of the health insurance debate. If anything needs to be socialized, it's dental care.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6311556#6311708
DUmmies love free stuff.

glowing  (1000+ posts)        Sat Aug-15-09 10:13 AM
Response to Original message
2. I agree. Along with vision care. A child who cannot see the chalk board or the 
 book he's trying to read, will NOT do well in school. I know my own hubby (who's 32)needed glasses for a very long time and had none. When we started dating, my first gift to him was to take him to the eye Dr and get him glasses.

 

Avalux  (1000+ posts)        Sat Aug-15-09 10:14 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. Agreed. Throw eye care in there too.

Hell, yeah. As long as someone else is paying, why not?
Hey, toss in free food while you're at it.

boobooday  (1000+ posts)        Sat Aug-15-09 10:34 AM
Response to Reply #5
16. I should have made my post a reply to yours
It is ridiculous how dental and medical care are treated as two separate things in this country,
as if poor dental health isn't a huge factor in many other health problems.

We also need free medical marijuana.

DUmmy Yellow Horse, apparently an escapee from one of Skammer's nut boards:

Yellow Horse (369 posts)      Sat Aug-15-09 11:00 AM
30. As A Farmer
I vehemently advocate that people who want fluoride ADD it to their OWN water, take it in pill form, or add to your family's drink or food if that is your choice.

Fluoride in water is NOT good for some animal species. There have been cases of animals dying after drinking fluoridated water.

Keep fluoride OUT of public water. I have to use the local public water supply for my farm purposes, and i do NOT want to be forced to pump fluoride into my livestock and crops.

At least we've have discovered another screen name used by vestanumbers at the DUmp.

snappyturtle  (1000+ posts)      Sat Aug-15-09 10:24 AM
Response to Original message
7. Agreed. Dentistry is out of reach. A few years back I had eight THOUSAND
 dollars of work done on my teeth.....age, menopause, child bearing and a poor diet during the years following a divorce all contributed. The odd thing is that I didn't have all that much done. Was completed over four or five months. I think it was outrageous even though I'm happy with the outcome. Of course, we had no dental insurance. The first estimate was over ten thousand! No offense to any dentist here but every business has employees to pay, insurance to buy, rent or a mortgage to pay. Something just seems out of whack....and I have the sinking feeling that the insurance companies play a part. One of the girls at the desk at my dentist told me it was too bad I didn't have insurance...the work would have been cheaper. IF that is true, so much for the insured covering the uninsured.

That reminds me. Years ago, I heard about a clinic, or maybe there were several, in South Carolina, where you would come in early in the morning, they would pull every tooth in your head, fit you for dentures, make them, and send you on your way. All in one day, and for just a few hundred dollars. They supposedly had a regular assembly line, with hundreds of patients lined up from all over the country. I knew a guy who claimed to have been there, and said it worked like a charm. Not for me.

And now for the post of the day, maybe the post of the week:

ThomWV  (1000+ posts)      Sat Aug-15-09 10:42 AM
Response to Original message
20. I have dental care but after spending thousand I started pulling my own teeth
 I have dental insurance, the Government plan that Congressmen have. The coverage is so poor that after spending several years and thousand of my own dollars trying to save my teeth I finally gave up and as they went bad I started pulling them myself. I did go to the local teaching hospital about 5 years ago to see what really needed to be done at that time. They wanted to pull everything that was left and the bill to me (after insurance had covered some piddling little bit) was still going to be nearly $3,000. So I said **** it.

By the way, I have kept all of my teeth, in a box. When they've all come out I'm going to drill holes through each of them and put them on a chain which I will then wear around my neck. Its my way of saying **** you to dentists.

Great post, DUmmy ThomWV!! Your president might be interested in that necklace.

krabigirl  (1000+ posts)      Sat Aug-15-09 02:05 PM
Response to Original message
41. Dentists are crooks. Can't stand them.

   
 

CountAllVotes  (1000+ posts)      Sat Aug-15-09 02:16 PM
Response to Reply #41
43. agree
the worst one I ever ran into owned portions of various race horses. That should tell you something! What a crook!

They can say anything and they'll hope to frighten you to death or frighten you into thinking you need thousands of $$$ worth of something or the other. 

Race horses! Dentists, like doctors, are evil. They own more stuff than any DUmmy.



 

[Karin]

RE ThomWV:  Oh come on, do you think that's real?  I think he plaigarized it, ala Uncle Joe, from the Brit guy who had to do the same thing.  Oh my.  I just nominated somebody else for the stupidest post of the week in another thread.   This would have to be the most outlandish post of the week. 

[GOBUCKS]

RE ThomWV:  Oh come on, do you think that's real?  I think he plaigarized it, ala Uncle Joe, from the Brit guy who had to do the same thing.  Oh my.  I just nominated somebody else for the stupidest post of the week in another thread.   This would have to be the most outlandish post of the week. 

Yeah, I think Thom may have moved to Wild 'n' Wonderful from Tiburon.

[franksolich]

Can anyone imagine what the mountain man primitive's breath stinks like?

Such things of course are of more-than-usual interest to me, because of what I am, and when communicating with people, I do pay much attention to the insides of their mouths.  It's never pretty, but one does what one has to do.

I imagine the inside of the mountain man primitive's mouth is a disaster.

[miskie]

Who the hell removes their own teeth ? This has got to be an 'embellished' tale.. The only way I could see this as even possible is if this primitive has such severe gum-rot that his teeth are just falling out. Meth Mouth perhaps ?

[franksolich]

Who the hell removes their own teeth ? This has got to be an 'embellished' tale.. The only way I could see this as even possible is if this primitive has such severe gum-rot that his teeth are just falling out. Meth Mouth perhaps ?

Probably not meth mouth, considered the mountain man primitive's age, but easily a lot of rot and decay, teeth and gums both, and perhaps even some stumps.

Not a pretty sight.

[thundley4]

Who the hell removes their own teeth ? This has got to be an 'embellished' tale.. The only way I could see this as even possible is if this primitive has such severe gum-rot that his teeth are just falling out. Meth Mouth perhaps ?

I assume that you are not including baby teeth?  I pulled most of mine when they loosened up.

[miskie]

I assume that you are not including baby teeth?  I pulled most of mine when they loosened up.

Oh, no no - I think everyone wiggled their baby teeth loose, and then free. I was only referring to permanent adult teeth and molars.

[Celtic Rose]

Who the hell removes their own teeth ? This has got to be an 'embellished' tale.. The only way I could see this as even possible is if this primitive has such severe gum-rot that his teeth are just falling out. Meth Mouth perhaps ?

I've heard that it has become more common in Britain as of late, because the wait to see a dentist is so long that cavities get really bad and really painful, so it is easier just to pull a tooth.  However, having it happen in the US is pretty ridiculous.  Admittedly, my employer provides dental insurance, and I donate some from each paycheck.  However, when I look at my bill, it is $135 for a cleaning (my insurance covers $130 of it ;-) )  For about $5-$6 a week, a person could cover at least their own basic dental with two cleanings a year, which would help keep teeth from reaching the rotting out of your head stage, and I'm sure that most dentists would be more than happy to work out a payment plan if necessary.  

I'm sure that there are even cheaper dentists available if one was willing to call around a bit.  

[GOBUCKS]

Who the hell removes their own teeth ? This has got to be an 'embellished' tale.. The only way I could see this as even possible is if this primitive has such severe gum-rot that his teeth are just falling out. Meth Mouth perhaps ?

Tom Hanks did it in "Cast Away". In real life, no one. I've had a few extractions over the years. I get shot up
until you could stub out a cigarette on my lip, then suck on nitrous oxide until I'm sailing away. I still get brief
stabs of extreme pain. (Nitrous has to be one of the greatest inventions in history!)

[The Village Idiot]

Who the hell removes their own teeth ? This has got to be an 'embellished' tale.. The only way I could see this as even possible is if this primitive has such severe gum-rot that his teeth are just falling out. Meth Mouth perhaps ?

pretty common in the UK

[AllosaursRus]

Bwahahahahahahaha! Now there's a video I'd like to see!

Reminds me of an experience I had when I was in my late 20's or early 30's!

There was an old guy who was the local blacksmith/mechanic/welder/parts hound etc., that was one of the fixtures on the hill. He always had a kegger once a year where all the hippies and anyone who wanted to drink beer would show up and just get snockered! It became a tradition in so much as folks would come from the four corners of the country. It was always a great time, as we usually went thru about 50 kegs of Bud every year!

Lots of blue grass music, chess tournaments, fireworks, you get the idea.

Always a lot of free loading long hair types would show up. Their women would run around topless, the guys would fall down drunk, everybody's kids would run amuck...........

One year, one of these fallin' down drunks had a toothache. He whined and moaned and whined and moaned and generally made a complete nuisance of himself for all of 2 days! Finally, the old guy that threw the party, came up to me and a couple of my buds, and asked us if we would just grab this idiot and hold him down so he could pull this sniveller's frikkin' tooth out, so we could all have a little peace!

Of course after drinking a couple days non stop, we were more than willing to help our patriarch out, as he was a fixture in the community. We would have kidnapped his wife at this point if he'd have asked us.

To make a long story as short as I can, we grabbed the guy and held him down! "Hank" pulled out his trusty fencing pliers, reached in and gave the guy's tooth a big yank! Mission accomplished!

Problem was "Hank" pulled the wrong tooth!

We didn't even know it for a week though! The guy never told us! Apparently, it was painful enough that he completely forgot about the bad tooth and didn't want us to do it to him again!

True story!

'Ol hank had finally had enough of his bellyachin'!

After I sobered up, a few days later, I felt really sorry for the guy. Then again, maybe he shoulda just gone to the damn dentist to start with!

Before that, I thought that shit like this only happened in old Marx bros movies!

edited for content

[JohnnyReb]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6311556#6311708
 
That reminds me. Years ago, I heard about a clinic, or maybe there were several, in South Carolina, where you would come in early in the morning, they would pull every tooth in your head, fit you for dentures, make them, and send you on your way. All in one day, and for just a few hundred dollars. They supposedly had a regular assembly line, with hundreds of patients lined up from all over the country. I knew a guy who claimed to have been there, and said it worked like a charm. Not for me.

Yes they did...in Florence SC....it might still be there.

40 years ago I was working in a lab with an older woman who developed some sort of gum disease, perfect teeth but something about the gums. She needed her teeth removed to cure the problem. Her husband had bad teeth, lots of fillings and stuff. Husband decided that they would both just go to that place and get it all done at once. She didn't like that idea but finally gave in.

One friday morning we got off work at 8am for our long weekend. The couple left work for the dental clinic about 40 miles away. By noon they had their teeth out and the new false teeth made and installed. They came out of the place into the parking lot and the husband who was macho, gungo to get it done this way started was crawling on his hands and knees. He throwup his new teeth and broke them before he even got to the car. The woman who didn't want to do it this way had to drive home while the husband hung out the window puking. She had no problems at all and the next week at work she was still making fun of her husband. Poor fellow, he never did live that down.
 

Oh and I think the price back then was like a $100 for everything.