Go floss your teeth!

[reriddle]

Ok. So I'm attending university hoping to better myself and all of that jazz. Trying to get out of the poverty that I was born into and such. Because I came from such a poor family of immigrants, I obviously didn't know anything about taking care of my teeth or had any money to get my teeth cleaned regularyly. So my mouth is just one shitty mess. I need several cleanings, fillings, possibly a root canal and braces!

How the fuck am I supposed to pay for all of this shit?

The university pays $720 dollars for dental work per year. Which I have already burned through. Yeah. I still need at least 2 fillings, and a root canal/ extraction and fack implant.

Where am I going to get the money to pay for this?! AHHH! I need to have the root canal, if I don't it will just get worse and worse and eventually I will get sick and die from it or it will make the rest of my teeth rot and fall out. And I need to eventually get the rest of my cavities filled, or they could all get infected and need root canals.

I'm also scared shitless that the infected tooth that needs a root canal will be too infected to be saved and they will have to pull it out. Then I'll have a big gap in my mouth, not like I was ugly enough before. No, now I need a gap in my yellow crooked bad smelling mouth! Because fuck me.

Summary: I'm scared of the cost of my potential dental work. My life is kind of sad, and my mouth is disgusting. having small panic attack over possible tooth extraction/ root canal. I just want to have nice teeth, why does it have to cost so much?

[BronxWench]

The first thing I'd do is look for a dental college/school. I know at least here, the senior students need actual patients to work with, and their work is supervised by their professors, who are accredited dentists. The cost can be a fraction of what you'd have to pay otherwise.

It might also be possible to find a dental clinic at a hospital that offers lower cost work.

The sad truth is that even if you're lucky enough to have dental coverage as part of your insurance, it rarely pays enough to cover the cost of a single root canal. My plan has a cap of $1500 a year for dental. NOT hard to burn through that, even at the plan's allowance for dental procedures. I'm just lucky I have a dentist that accepts what the plan pays and doesn't ask for more.

[Melrick]

Probably not helpful to point out that if you lived here in Australia, you'd have access to free dental?

[BronxWench]

Adopt me?

[Melrick]

lol It's for low income earners.

[BronxWench]

Ah, too bad, then. Besides, it'd be hard explaining an adopted child who's older than you are.

[GeorgeGlass]

The first thing I'd do is look for a dental college/school. I know at least here, the senior students need actual patients to work with, and their work is supervised by their professors, who are accredited dentists. The cost can be a fraction of what you'd have to pay otherwise.

And if you're worried about being treated by students, there are studies to show that procedures performed by supervised trainees have just as good outcomes as those performed by experienced personnel.

[reriddle]

You guys rock. I write this during a coffee fueled anxiety moment and really needed to put my words somewhere.

I have already started to look into getting my teeth cleaned and some fillings done by students at the local university. Though the root canal is still going to cost me a large amount of money.

Luckily, I'm still coverable under my parents insurance for at least another year or two! So I'm going to get all of my major dental work done in these next two years ( root canal and braces) and hope that after university I can get a nice job with a decent health plan.

Thanks again for all the nice replies.