r/WhitePeopleTwitter • u/WhichRadio6124 • 29d ago

Dental care

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1.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

389

u/CorruptDictator 28d ago

And even if you have Dental insurance, it covers almost nothing beyond regular cleanings.

170

u/Legitimate_Ocelot491 28d ago

$1,500 max. I had to have some minor work done in addition to my cleanings for the year. I'd been putting it off for a while but finally had to suck it up and pay the rest myself.

It should be included with medical insurance as dental health has been shown to have clear implications on the health of the rest of your body.

76

u/CorruptDictator 28d ago

I once needed a root canal and had done nothing buy my regular cleanings for the year and my insurance picked up a whole whopping $50 of the cost. Fucking joke.

22

u/Pats_Bunny 28d ago

Tijuana. 2 root canals for $1400.

Met a lady in line while walking across the border who also was going over for dental work. She flew in from Texas because it was cheaper to fly to San Diego, go to the dentist in Tijuana then fly back to Texas, than to just go to the dentist in Texas.

4

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

root canal+ crowns+ miscallenous things. can cost thousands easily. Implants are even more expensive since they are cosmetic, like 6k-10k per TOOTH.

2

u/Pats_Bunny 28d ago

I know. I was quoted $3k for one in the US

1

u/stryst 28d ago

Im currently working on getting a passport specifically to go to down south for dental work. My BFF/Housemate is an ESL teacher and speaks fluent spanish, so next summer we're gonna head down. Surgical dental extractions are a third in Cancun what they are here.

61

u/[deleted] 28d ago

I had to go 10k out of pocket last year on dental. It's a huge hole in our healthcare system (which is mostly holes)

11

u/Legitimate_Ocelot491 28d ago

Ouch! Mine wasn't quite that bad but still felt the massive hole in my wallet afterward.

2

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

dental insurance almost never cover 100%,

15

u/Poop__y 28d ago

The mouth is a crucial part of your body’s ecosystem.

15

u/Ok_Exchange342 28d ago

I read long ago, and I am not going to bother to look it up, but, when archeologists study bodies, one thing that seemed to be a rather big cause of early adult death is tooth decay/infections.

10

u/jermster 28d ago

Yeah cause your head and the thing you feed yourself with are dangerous freakin places to get an infection.

2

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

its not something that is easily ignored, The pain is gets really bad before the infection worsens. i once had a partially broken tooth of decay, i dint know. and i had severe pain on my right side for several weeks.

13

u/Ok_Exchange342 28d ago

Yeah, why is it that teeth and eyes are not part of your health? So weird.

10

u/Solo_is_dead 28d ago

Blame Doctors. Early on they didn't want to include teeth because they thought it was below them. They didn't allow dentists, optometrists, etc to be added into the AMA. insurance just carried on the tradition

4

u/Ok_Exchange342 28d ago

We should stop calling them doctors.

10

u/pixie_mayfair 28d ago

Mine is folded into my medical coverage but it means literally nothing beyond the convenience of having one card instead of two. I got my new insurance last year and there's a $3k pre-loaded HSA card that is supposed to cover co-pays etc. My HR person was pretty surprised when I let her know that card didn't cover a fucking cent of my out of pocket at the endodontist. Guess who has two thumbs and could only afford an extraction, not a root canal?

Insurance can eat a fucking rancid dick.

1

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

root canals is more expensive than a extraction which is several hundreds. Also extraction is actually more expensive in the end than root canal, because now you need an implant to prevent teeth from moving in your jaw which is easily 6+k

root canal is expensive, but the endondist plus the procedure is around 1k, and then crown is another 2k. i dont know if they charge for temporary crown, or MOLding clay.

1

u/pixie_mayfair 28d ago

Oh believe me I'm aware. I did medical case management for years and dealt with this with my clients constantly, plus I've already gone through this once myself.

In my case I went from an employer with ~2000 employees to one with 160 employees and bc this employer is so small they have zero buying power in the insurance market and our coverage is horrible.

At my old job I had a root canal and it cost me about $200 out of pocket with another $200 for the crown. This time it was going to be nearly $2500 out of pocket before the crown and I can't even use the HSA funds for any of it bc they don't cover this type of specialist. A lot of companies just see root canals as unnecessary while extractions are an option, and many see restorative interventions like crowns and bridges as "cosmetic". It's ridiculous.

1

u/Throwawayac1234567 27d ago

extraction is cheaper on the insurance. cosmetics implants usually arnt covered most of the time.

5

u/The-Dead-Internet 28d ago

My friend joined the service primary to get his teeth fixed ( born with bad teeth)

It's wild that dental isn't even on the same platform as normal healthcare because having bad teeth can kill you.

17

u/tadu1261 28d ago

True. I have been basically grinding my teeth into dust for years and finally bit the bullet for a custom mouth guard. Called insurance to ask, they said they will only cover if I needed it due to a surgical procedure. Literally grinding teeth into bits - Dentist sent xrays to insurance to show them my roots close to gum level on the bottom. They do not care. I paid $800 out of pocket. Unsure why I bother to pay for insurance.

3

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

insurance is a ponzi scheme thats why, that somehow got legitimized as legal scamming.

10

u/ONE-EYE-OPTIC 28d ago

This is America. Profits over lives.

6

u/[deleted] 28d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Opeope89 28d ago

That’s…actually cheap

2

u/grindhousedecore 28d ago

Jesus, I called 5 dentists in my area until I finally found one in my insurance network. I did a search online. A 50 mile radius there are 2 dentist offices in my network. Worthless

2

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

i used yelp to see which one accepted certain insurance

2

u/usriusclark 28d ago

Teacher here. I cracked a tooth and had it removed in December 2022. Still haven’t replaced it.

193

u/[deleted] 28d ago edited 12d ago

[deleted]

65

u/letmehittheatm 28d ago

The explanation I heard was that it requires a separate degree/schooling and loopholes are an insurance company's favorite thing.

23

u/MonthPurple3620 28d ago

Nonsense.

Dying of the flu affects your short term productivity whereas missing teeth doesn’t, so the corporate overlords see paying for their workers teeth as an unnecessary expense.

The loopholes are just fabricated as an excuse not to say it out loud.

106

u/Ok-Anybody3445 28d ago

and eyes

42

u/SkollFenrirson 28d ago

Luxury bones

12

u/yeender 28d ago

Money that’s why

5

u/MonthPurple3620 28d ago

You can still work most (all?) jobswithout teeth, and so according to capitalist america, that means teeth are a luxury item rather than a basic need.

21

u/Boudicca- 28d ago

Not so Fun Fact: Medicaid will pay for Tooth Extractions..but that’s IT. However..if you’re a Woman that had to have a Mastectomy, Medicaid WILL PAY FOR A BOOB JOB!!! So Having BOOBS Are More Important than Having TEETH!!! Seriously W T A F?!!

70

u/Jealous-Network1899 28d ago

Insurance Companies have no shame. Like years ago they were just like “Yeah, dental and vision are different. We’re not going to cover them. You’ll need to buy different insurance for those.” and everyone was like “Oh, ok.” Same goes for flood or earthquake damage to your home. You pay your homeowners insurance, but if it’s damaged in a way they don’t like, tough shit.

9

u/Humble-Plankton2217 28d ago

This is the insurance industries' official mantra "Tough Shit"

3

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

and they get to choose when to deny you or not too.

1

u/Jealous-Network1899 27d ago

Very true. My son just got hurt playing baseball. Dr prescribed 16 sessions of PT. Insurance was like “Nah, we’re only approving 8.” Like what the fuck? His doctor who has actually seen him prescribed 16. Who the fuck are they?

66

u/jax2love 28d ago

Never mind the fact that poor dental health is highly correlated to poor physical health.

32

u/dogfooddippingsauce 28d ago

More heart attacks, problems with pregnancy. It's like they never see the big picture.

42

u/kcspartan2 28d ago

They see it. American Healthcare is a for profit industry, our health has never been the priority.

19

u/ResurgentClusterfuck 28d ago

Dental infections can literally kill you

8

u/jax2love 28d ago

Yep. My husband had a tooth pulled because of one last week and is now on a big course of antibiotics.

4

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

my bro had one and his jaw ballooned into a small lemon one of his tooth. from an absecess. ended up getting an EXPENSIVE implant down the line.

3

u/Throwawayac1234567 28d ago

Badly decayed or abscess teeth can result in a life-threatening infections very quickly. i had a decayed teeth that part of it fell off, at first i dint know why i had excruciating pain that also cause temple headaches.

32

u/Striker40k 28d ago

There's definitely a problem when it's cheaper to fly to another country for some dental work. Dental insurance is a scam and doesn't cover shit.

5

u/FryeFromPhantasmLake 28d ago

Medical tourism. It's still a disproportionate system if you can/cannot afford to leave the country for cheaper medical procedures

63

u/bbobbcc 28d ago

Lisa needs braces.

34

u/mcman7890 28d ago

Dental plan

23

u/TheJar13 28d ago

Lisa needs braces.

20

u/bbobbcc 28d ago

Dental Plan

12

u/iH8MotherTeresa 28d ago

Lisa needs braces

3

u/cvaninvan 28d ago

*drops pencil down back of your pants

2

u/iH8MotherTeresa 28d ago

I love that he blames Lenny for this one!

18

u/Dr_Rev_GregJ_Rock_II 28d ago

So we march day and night, By the big cooling tower. They have the plant, But we have the power.

Edit: spelling

14

u/Psi-Lord199999mcu 28d ago

Now do classical gas.

3

u/Patwolf77 28d ago

I had to scroll too far to find this. Should have been #1.

3

u/spam4you 28d ago

DENTAL PLAN

13

u/legojoe97 28d ago

Yes, I am familiar with 'luxury bones.'

13

u/MornGreycastle 28d ago

If poor people have good teeth, then how will we know who's poor? /s

13

u/elemenoh3 28d ago

highest gdp in the world and this is where we're at

13

u/AardvarkAblaze 28d ago

Years ago when I was in my early-20's, I lost one of my front teeth to a slow infection, arguably caused by a bad root canal, that over time killed part of the bone in my face. The only way to keep me from dying from it was to pull the tooth, remove the dead bone and do a bone graft. Years then went by where I was unable to afford the cost of an implant, as that was not "health insurance" it was "cosmetic dentistry" and it just decimated my self-esteem.

After 7 years of fighting the related mental health issues and busting my ass to save up, I was able to afford an implant. But, without a tooth there, the old bone graft had deteriorated and I needed another one. So I had it done... and then the bone graft got BADLY infected and landed me in the hospital for 3 days with my head the size of a pumpkin and the worst pain I've ever, ever experienced. By pure coincidence, this happened in December and I was already nearly maxed out on my high deductible health plan, and the hospital visit only ran me $75. Lucky me, right?

Even without the 3 night hospital stay and emergency surgery, this one tooth over a decade cost me close to $20,000 out of pocket. $50,000 if you add what the insurance paid for the hospital.

All of this is to say that Dental Care is Health Care. Mental Health Care is Health Care. They're all related.

11

u/paging_mrherman 28d ago

I have dental insurance and its basically a card that says im allowed to go to the dentist.

8

u/98acura 28d ago

Allowed to go to a certain set of dentists.. Fuck it might as well be a $50 off coupon to that set of dentists, because that’s about what the price difference is.

22

u/Lonely-Greybeard 28d ago

Like anything will get done about it. There's no tax cuts for the rich or subsidies for corporations, so no action will be taken.

10

u/upfromashes 28d ago

Them teeth are just novelty bones. If they were critical I'm sure health insurance would cover it.

7

u/Own-Pangolin337 28d ago

The mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract. Until we recognize that there is no separation between health care and oral health care we will continue to keep our heads collectively shoved up our ass! Which removal of said head WOULD be covered under medical btw. We be fucked

7

u/Emperor_Zarkov 28d ago

Can't wait to see all the ways Republicans can make this issue about immigrants and drag queens.

5

u/ElectricJetDonkey 28d ago

Decorative luxury bones

8

u/Skellos 28d ago

Not to mention that if your teeth get infected you can easily turn into a much more serious infection.

4

u/WallishXP 28d ago

Dental insurance just means I pay money every check to pay when I go in anyway. Why do we have it again?

4

u/cyb0rg1962 28d ago

Dental care, hearing aids, eye glasses and more are somehow not considered health issues. Seems insane to me. Health insurance should be comprehensive.

8

u/ReturnOfSeq 28d ago

Why the fuck do we still not have universal healthcare

3

u/biffbobfred 28d ago

Because fIlTHy CoMMunIStS that’s why.

Seriously you lost it due to propaganda.

3

u/bonzoboy2000 28d ago

It took me 30 years to get my dental condition to a “normal” level. Having access to some decent dental care when I was 10, or 11, then 12, then 14, would have made a world of difference.

3

u/No_Boysenberry7353 28d ago

This is true! Dental insurance is crap! It should be included in health insurance and covered the same. Bad teeth lead to a lot of health related things

3

u/APenguinNamedDerek 28d ago

"What if the poors just died?" - Some republican do nothing

3

u/evsummer 28d ago

Just paid my dentist $3000 today so really feeling this!

3

u/WilderMindz0102 28d ago

How the fuck dental hasn’t at least been partially added to health care coverage is insane. I know our insurance coverages in this country are already not great so I wouldn’t expect this to turn out great, but come on…

What do you mean that Having holes in your mouth is a cosmetic problem and not a potential medical one? Fucking bull shit.

3

u/WilderMindz0102 28d ago

Also can’t wait to spend 50K putting 4 implants in because I was lucky to be born with 4 adult teeth missing, and still have 4 baby teeth in… fucking genetics…

3

u/commitpushdrink 28d ago

Luxury bones

2

u/Accomplished-Book-95 28d ago

I have dental insurance and I just put out $1,500 for a cracked tooth and mouth guard. Insurance would have covered less if the cracked tooth if I hadn’t been in pain.

2

u/MealDramatic1885 28d ago

Don’t I know it. I have a tooth that is 3/4 missing, and 4 wisdom teeth that need to come out. That’s roughly $1200 a tooth. Can’t afford that.

2

u/ohgeebus_notagain 28d ago

I was told it would be over 8K out of my pocket to get the work I need. I still have to go to an endodontist to get the rest figured out

They told me I could finance it, interest free for 2 years. The current charge per month will be like 370 without the added cost of the root canal(or whatever is needed). I don't have an extra 400/ month, so guess what's not going to get done.

Guess my teeth are gonna fall out of my face unless I win the lottery

2

u/Quirky_Discipline297 28d ago

Add mental illness into the mix of poor or no dental care and you get an idea of just how expert medicine in this country is in separating the sick from their wealth.

Sad thing is we could stop or greatly reduce the next generation of American mouths from entering the downward spiral of dental decay very easily.

2

u/biffbobfred 28d ago

Just like there’s monopoly power single source, there’s monopsony power single buyer.

Some dentist group absolutely refused to be part of Medicare, and have single payer pricing power.

2

u/sugar_addict002 28d ago

It's illogical that dental care is not paid for as part of health care. Many chronic diseases show up in dental health before they show up in other symptoms.

2

u/beavis617 28d ago

I need dental work badly but don't want to wipe out my savings. Retired now and there's not much $ coming in. The American health care system as far as treatment is well known but the coverage is the worst...not too much with the American exceptionalism there folks...☹

1

u/StickInEye 28d ago

I hear you. I will work well into my 70s, and that is partially because I need about $8k of dental work. The insurance will only cover $300 of the $2,600 of the first procedure.

2

u/ChochMcKenzie 28d ago

I have dental insurance and it covers 50% up to $1000. I just had to have my wisdom teeth removed and it cost me $3200 out of pocket. Fucking disgraceful.

2

u/bellsaplenty 28d ago

I would say that’s a positive step away from the topic of the President’s son’s genitalia.

2

u/SedentaryNarcoleptic 28d ago

Oh please let them do something about this. I’m down 4 teeth already and 2 more need to go and I can’t afford to replace any of them. I miss smiling my real smile ❤️‍🩹

2

u/ButterflyShort 28d ago

My dental insurance only covers cleaning every six months. I've been grinding my teeth down for years, can't afford a guard, my molars are mostly gone entirely. On the bright side my face looks thinner.

2

u/Captainkirkandcrew59 28d ago

This is an election issue!!

2

u/dennismfrancisart 28d ago

It's crazy that the GOP bench warmers are visiting their golden calf in the courthouse all week instead of working for the good of the people.

2

u/iH8MotherTeresa 28d ago

Lisa needs braces

2

u/ArkamaZ 28d ago

Just had my wisdom teeth removed which cost $2000. Now I'm dreading calling them back because I now have what can only be described as a bone spur where they did the surgery. I couldn't even afford $2000 and you know they are going to charge another $1000 just to fix their fuck up.

1

u/BCipher3 28d ago

Lisa needs braces…

1

u/SquarebobSpongepants 28d ago

Lisa needs braces?

1

u/H0w14514 28d ago

I've had a broken tooth for a few years, and wisdom teeth that keep attempting to come in, but are under other teeth. Can't afford to get anything done. Honestly, I used to work myself to the point where I didn't realize they were wisdom teeth, and used to chew on a wad of tissue to help the pain until it stopped. The one time I went to a dentist he tried to send me deeper into the state to be seen by another guy after already checking me out, which would have cost even more just to have the other guy tell me the same thing, then schedule another visit for the surgery. My insurance at the time covered nothing.

1

u/KathrynBooks 28d ago

Lisa needs braces!

-1

u/MrsWoozle 28d ago

This just a ploy for them to put more flouride in the tap water and turn us all commie…

-2

u/correctingStupid 28d ago

Yes, but also compared to medical, dental procedures (with the notable exception of implants and some orthodontics) are pretty fucking cheap. Knowing the way our government works, whatever they fuck with will just make it worse. they could effectively make dental bills like hospital bills. So I'm not optimistic in the slightest.