paying for dental treatment (US)

[melissa]

Hello all! I am new here, and have a few ??'s.
Im 25 and have only been to the dentist like 3 times? maybe...? in my life.Anyways, we grew up very poor- homeless at one time...and my parents never took me to the dentist. I went once cause I had 2 teeth growing ontop of the 2 front ones, cause there wasnt no room for them to come dow. Anyways- i went and they were pulled and i had a partial cleaning...after that- prob a year later a back molar broke (mind u the other side molar s are totally bad- i was eating cereal when i was a kid and it broke 2 of them) so i allready cant eat n my right side, and the left side molar broke. went into a different dentist...and oh man. He was SUCH a jerk! He yelled at me, cussed at me, told me i would never have enough money to fix my teeth, that i was lazy etc etc. I am absolutely mortified to say the least. As if my anxiety/depression wasnt bad enough. He didnt fix the broken tooth either.

SOOOOOOOOOOOO mind u my situations is this: 2 baby teeth, 2 wisdom teeth, gap in the front 2 teeth, missing 2 teeth (hence the gap) & plaque.

I need 4 extractins and 4 root canals, and 3 -3unit bridges done and a major deep cleaning/flouride etc....
I am a huge scardy cat, and am actually having anxiety right now!!! ugh.... i also have a mitral valve prolapse, and feel like im going to just die if they put me under anestesia. (Been under it once w/ a c-section) but stll. I know it horrible, but i dont have $10,000 to fix it and my insurance covers 1000.00 (woopdie doo)
Anywho.......
any advice/tips etc, about my work that needs to be done. Anyone ever have 4 extractions or 4 root canals or multiple things done in one visit????
Any help is appreciated.

 

[Clem]

Re: HELP!!!!!!!!!!!! New here...

Is there a College of Dentistry anywhere near? They do excellent work, well supervised by very very good instructors who have their own practices, and at about half the price of private practice. That still doesn't get it down to what you need, but maybe they can decide what needs to be done first, and kind of take it at a slow pace. They should also be able to use sedation/nitrous, whatever. Be warned, they often take a long time, though--because every step has to be checked by the instructor before they can go on. Ask if you can get a payment plan or at least a hardship discount, I don't know about that but it's worth asking. I do think some of them can do pro bono work.

Good luck!