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It seems like the past couple of months I have gotten to know my dentist well. Shortly after I got laid off almost three year ago, my dental insurance had to be dropped. My ex-employer did offer me a plan to keep my insurance, but it was going to cost me over $800 a month to do it. WTF, you just laid me off! Where is that extra money going to come from my unemployment? Needless to say, we had to drop both medical and dental insurance coverage. This made me feel vulnerable and worried about getting sick or injured and not being able to cover it. Not only that but I need prescriptions for my cholesterol and thyroid each month. The cholesterol meds alone were over $100 without coverage. I did catch a break on the meds. My doctor found me a generic brand for both that dropped the prices way down and made them affordable. As for the dentist, I couldn’t afford it so I simply didn’t go.
I was able to hold off on any dental work for over two years, but it came at a price. First of all, I have periodontal gum disease which I inherited from my Dad. When he was first diagnosed many years ago, they just simply pulled all his teeth and gave him dentures. These days, they subject your teeth to regular teeth cleaning, deep cleaning, and if needed, surgical cleaning. I have had the deep cleaning where they numb up one side on your mouth and clean under the gums. That usually takes two visits. You can imagine how bad my teeth got without the regular cleaning, but that wasn’t it.
After two years, I finally found a dental office that offers a discount to those without insurance. I decided to get my teeth checked, and then cleaned. As I suspected, I needed four root canals and crowns on my back teeth. They gave me an itemized list of what this was going to cost me and with the discount, it was still too much. I decided to put off the root canals until we could afford it but my tooth had other plans. While eating something rather hard, I broke the tooth. I didn’t just crack it; I did a great job of destroying it. By the time it was done falling apart, they wasn’t a tooth to be saved. The only thing the dentist could do was to remove what was left. Without trying, I just save over $700 on a tooth that once needed a root canal.
After the removal of my upper tooth, the lower back teeth were causing problems too. There was already a hole where they twice tried to temporarily fill it. I hung in there hoping that the temp filling would last and I could baby it as long as possible. While I was dealing with those teeth, the other upper tooth that needed a root canal lost its filling and now had an exposed hole. Two weeks ago, they removed the back tooth on the bottom because I broke it beyond help. Shortly afterwards, the tooth on top was hurting so much I had to get it fixed. We had money in our savings so got the root canal on that tooth and the pain stopped. The pain in my mouth was gone but not in my wallet. Ouch, that hurt and I have to pay the second half when I pick up my permanent crown on March 7th.
Now I have to make a rather tough decision. I still need at least one more root canal and crown on a tooth that is already broken. If I go through our dentist again, we would have to save up and that could take a few months. The problem is I don’t think this tooth has a few months. I would love to save this tooth and not have to go through another extraction.
There is another choice to cross the border and get it fixed in Mexico. Many people are doing this even several friends of ours. Most of them park their cars in Yuma and walk across the border. They all have dentist they have been going to for many years and never had a problem. The price is extremely affordable. I could get several root canals and crowns for what one cost in America. Our friend is willing to come with us to the dentist and help translate. The problem is all the border wars and violence that are happening in the border towns worry me. I know that those who do this all the time are very comfortable and would rather get their dental care and medications in Mexico than pay the exuberant prices here. They also feel the dentist do a great job and they are getting the best care.
Should I put aside my fears of what is happening on the borders and get my tooth taken care of or should I stay away? If I decide to get the root canal and crown in Mexico, I will definitely blog about my experience.
