• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Should i give up

  • Thread starter Sickandfeeling hopeless
  • Start date
S

Sickandfeeling hopeless

Junior member
Joined
Apr 12, 2019
Messages
12
Location
Ohio usa
I have been searching for so long to find a dentist that takes medicaid and can deal with my fears and medical problems and i have found nothing. Even dental school refused because they said its to much for the students. I have searched and emailed and called for days now and all i hear is no we can't help you. What can i do. Im desperate.
 
I'm not in the US, but @Dg6300 who frequently posts here has recommended calling 211 for referrals (both dental and psychological). It would appear that they also have an online chat function in Ohio, in case you don't like speaking on the phone: https://www.211oh.org
 
Hi there,

so sorry to read how desperate you feel and I see that it might seem like there are no options. Hope the advice from letsconnect / Dg6300 helps, but besides that: please do not give up. It might seem hopeless now but there must be a dentist for you somewhere. Sometimes it's a good idea to take a break and stop looking for a while just to get some new courage (if your dental problems allow you a bit of time) and then start again.
Hope you can get help as soon as possible.
 
I'm not in the US, but @Dg6300 who frequently posts here has recommended calling 211 for referrals (both dental and psychological). It would appear that they also have an online chat function in Ohio, in case you don't like speaking on the phone: https://www.211oh.org
211 was one of the first places i called. I live in a small county and she said thats why we dont have many services. We dont even have a dental society. Any way the only thing she had in her data base was something called Dental options and Safety net. I don't qualify for either one because i have medicaid. Even if i did quality they have stopped taking applications and the wait time is over 3 years. Dentists don't feel the need to volunteer their time. So as i said in other post we suffer and die.
 
Is there any way for you to get a therapist to get support with the dental anxiety from that side first?
 
I agree with all of the above, the 211 sounds they may give some good support options and know some resources dentally. Have you got a chance to check out any of the free and reduced rate clinics I had posted previously. ? I know you mentioned one was near to you? I know it is hard with medicaid as sometimes even if a clinic takes it they have a cap on how many they can take.. it sounds you hve really been trying veryhard and good advide from Enarete to maybe take a breather and gather your energy for a bit if possible. Here is another resource I found and you can click under payment options on the top and and then under medicaid and it has 3 pages of listings for dentists in cleveland area that are supposed to take medicaid.. I hope it may be of help.

https://findadentist.ada.org
 
Is there any way for you to get a therapist to get support with the dental anxiety from that side first?
I do see a case manager from a behavior health place and she has been trying to help. I have had a dental advocate as well. Together after all this time we have found nothing. As i stated in the beginning i have been looking for 7 years taking breaks along the way. Im so frustrated and angry. My daughter cant even find a dentist for my 13 year old grandson who tooth has abscessed. She had to take him to the er and they gave him an antibiotic and said best of luck finding a dentist. Even the er knows its impossible. I have friends that are in the same shape im in and also suffering. I believe thats why my dental phobia keeps growing. I just want to curl up and cry. We have people who have pulled their on teeth here out of desperation because they couldn't take the pain anymore and no dentist would help. Most including me have even called the place that passes for a free dental clinic in our county. So few dentists will volunteer there time they are only seeing people 16 years old and up which leaves my grandson out and you can't have any insurance like medicaid. So that was another dead end for me too. The longer this goes on the more i hate dentists because the problem always comes back to the fact that if dentists were not so greedy and uncaring This would not be happening to me and millions of other people in the usa. I have done lots of googling all this time and thats what im seeing over and over. Even the American dental association who has denied that there is no access to dental care problem after pressure from dental advocates testifying in government the ada gave dentists tax breaks and excused their dental debts if they promised to see medicaid patients. The dentists took the money but have refused to see more medicaid patients. Because there is no one watching these dentists they are getting away with fraud and murder. And around and around we go and it always comes back to greedy evil dentists causing all this pain and suffering and laughing all the way to the bank. Its disgusting.
 
I see what you mean. The options you mentioned in your other thread (tv stations, the newspaper, your senator) all sound worth a shot, given the circumstances. Maybe try your senator first (or rather, see what constituent services are available in your area)?

Probably best not to mention greedy evil dentists though and simply stick to the facts!
 
from what the very rude person who I finally managed to get on the phone told me because of my medical problem it was too much for the students to handle and I need a hospital setting.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I would think it would be best not to discuss your medical issues with unqualified staff on the telephone. It just gives them an excuse to push you back.

Try googling some more for dentist taking medicaid in your area.

Find one and discuss the medical/phobia issues when you get there. For treatment with local anaesthetic there are very few medical situations where this would be an issue. What condition are you telling them you have?

Do you have a decent Medical GP who could help maybe by asking a local dentist to treat you 'pro bono'?

Is there no way you could borrow from someone (friend/relative) to just get the essential care to 'get you out of pain'? Typically that wouldn't be that expensive anyway. Ditto for your grandson.
 
There seems to be another dental school (Case) as well. Also saying it takes Ohio Medicaid.

Our general advice page on financing is here:

 
Last edited:
i have had a very stressful day. i spent an hour on the phone with my medicaid provider member services person. i explained what im dealing with and he called these dentists asking them why they were refusing me care and 7 of them said they dropped medicaid and the rest said they do not take complicated dental issues. he said hes notifying there griviance department and they should be getting in touch with me after they investagate these dentists and check for medicaid fraud.
i need to process all this but i also talked to my dental advocate who is working with her goverment partner and apparently dentists have declared war, so to speak,on medicaid and medicaid dentists are now refusing to treat patients unless its an emergency and the treatment is a simple extraction. they are doing this to force medicaid to pay them there inflated prices. im very confused but according to my advocate dentists think if enough medicaid patients are refused care and get sick ending up in emerency rooms or die that medicaid will be forced to pay them tons more money that the states dont have. which leaves me and millions like me right in the middle of a mess. and an even harder time getting needed dental care. dentists are basically holding people on medicaid hostage until they get what they want. this is crazy. im so upset and confused and wondering where that leaves me. but it does explain why i havent been able to get dental care. Dear God what do i do now???


i checked out free dental clinics. the one in my county is only for people with no insurance, if you have medicaid they cant see you.

i have a bleeding disorder and i have had 2 heart attacks in the past year. so i need to be in a hospital so they can monitor me in case i have a problem during the dental work. i need all my teeth pulled and work done on my gums. my primary care doctor is baffled by everything im going threw and has tried what resources he had and wasnt able to get me help. nobody has the kind of money i need to pay to get this done. i got a quote from an oral surgeon who doesnt take medicaid that it would cost $30.000. at least. no one can afford that.
 
Very interesting :o - thanks for the update! I hope the grievance department will be in touch with you soon, and hopefully with some good news. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.
 
Back
Top