If you have a cavity that you can’t afford to deal with go get some clove oil ( yes, I know how people feel about essential oils and I usually agree- but this is legit) and cotton swabs. Soak the swab in the oil to excess and then put the swab in the cavity and squeeze the excess oil into the cavity. This is going to taste like you ate a thousand pounds of cinnamon and your mouth might water- a lot, but clove oil is a dentist approved antiseptic. You have to be careful, it can burn your face skin if you get it anywhere unintended.
I have been slowly losing my teeth over the past decade and am too broke to fix it, so I had to rely on clove oil between being able to afford extractions. It helped a lot. If the oil doesn’t work then the infection is too far gone and you need good antibiotics. They wouldn’t even be able to extract a tooth that bad.
I know… There are 10 dental schools in Canada, the odds of getting in to one to have any work done are almost literally like winning the lottery. I’m sure it’s not much better in the U.S. plus you have to be lucky enough to live near one. The nearest major city to me is 8 hours away. And typically you have to fit within an income threshold, which we don’t as we are a two income household with benefit, albeit benefits that are quite limited.
Some bad tooth advice: try to floss with a water pick if you can, do it softly, after you brush your teeth. Follow by rinsing with 1 part hydrogen peroxide and 9 parts warm water—DO NOT swallow the hydrogen peroxide mixture, and definitely please make sure to dilute adequately with water. Are you in any state that has Medicaid? I think I remember it having a dental component. In lieu of that, a lot of dental schools offer free services. Good luck!!
clove oil, babes. you can buy cloves and coconut oil at the dollar store. dump em both into a pot, simmer on low for a few hours. strain and pop into a container. it’ll solidify, so you can just swipe a chunk and tip it across your gums and into any applicable holes. not as good as the distilled stuff, but it’s kinda hard to make that yourself without the proper equipment.
Canada just released its timetable to phase routine maintenance dental care into a consolidated health plan.
It’s starting small, but if our Republican wanna-bes don’t kill it we could have universal coverage and equal access to dental care regardless of economic station.
my parents didn't have teeth by the time they were in their 30s either. Americans have a rather out-of-proportion concern about their teeth. I know its a trope that Englishman have bad teeth, but look, dental isn't covered by British universal health care because most times its primarily cosmetic , even things American dentists say are essential, and not a true health concern.
Teeth are absolutely not cosmetic. Infection of a tooth can lead to dangerous consequences up to sepsis. Your parents didn’t have teeth because they had them removed by a dentist to avoid abscesses.
lol at the thought of “this part of your body that you use multiple times every day for vital survival functions and various other functions like communication is mostly cosmetic, you’ll do just fine without!”
Teeth bleaching is cosmetic, crowns and fillings and whatever are restoration of normal functioning.
If we were meant to be ok without properly functioning teeth, we wouldn’t have teeth in the first place. That’s a stupid argument biologically speaking. (No offense intended to you personally, ofc)
I understand that Americans have a disproportionate focus on the -specifically cosmetic- aspects of oral hygiene, whiteness and straightness, primarily, but to say that most oral care is unnecessary and purely cosmetic is just absolute hogwash.
Mind you this is from someone who intends to get all her teeth ripped out and replaced with implants because no matter what I do, I average a cavity every 2-4 years. It’s cheaper in the long run to get implanted dentures than to fight my genes. So I understand entirely the being toothless by 30 (tho I’m 36 and still have all of them, I think I have more fillings than teeth at this point, and if most of those weren’t done free in the military I’d just have no teeth) but I disagree vehemently with the idea that that’s totally fine and won’t cause problems.
oh it’s fine, you know how when deer get old and their teeth are all worn away or whatever, and they can’t eat anymore and they just starve to death… it’s just part of life! /s
Go ahead and live with dentures then. When your bottoms pop out every time you eat steak, remember what you said here. Teeth are absolutely essential. It’s cheaper to take care of your natural teeth than it is to drop 30k on implant-supported dentures, or if you’re broke, just basic ones.
Source: I work in the field. Bottom dentures are by far the most disappointing service we do.
This. I’ve only been recently able to afford much needed dental care, and now it’s too late for one of my teeth, a tooth above it broke the roots because my mouth is too crowded. Had I been able to afford it earlier, I would have a much more normal mouth.
I have larger than average teeth too, so I had braces all of middle school.
Hoping the cause of this is something simple like a sinus infection, though the area has a baby tooth that’s managed to hang on and it has fillings from when I was a kid.
My problem is the opposite, normal teeth, small mouth! Haven’t ever been able to have braces until now, so I’m knocking it all out now. Hope everything goes well for you!
I’m currently living through my most stessful week of my life: About a year and a half ago, I bought a plot of land with the project of building a home there, inflation and loan rate kicked in, so I thought “alright let’s wait a bit see when it stabilizes”, this week I learned my plot is planned to be removed from the “buildable” area. If I don’t put a building permit to the city council before this is voted my land will basically see it’s value divided by 20 and I won’t be able to build a house there, I put 6 years of savings into this project… all because my gov decided that they didn’t want this area to be urbanised anymore.
I have trouble sleeping and working I can’t think of anything else, I also lost my appetite.
Thank you for the kind message. We are looking into these alternative options, they come with their own set of laws and stuff, we don’t really know yet what we can do.
This is happening to my father as well, although the city is doing the opposite: he can’t build a house on his property, he has to build a minimum of 40 apartments (it’s a 1/2 acre lot).
I chipped my back teeth on something, but it ain’t hurting so i am making an effort to not worry about it. Not like i even want to live to see my body breaking down in old age anyway.
This might sound scary, but try holding ice cold water in your mouth. I had an infected tooth and that made it feel SOOOO much better until I could get it fixed.
May or may not help your situation, but if it hurts as bad as mine did, you’re probably willing to try anything.
I had an abscess under a tooth many years ago, and the only thing that helped the pain was to chew ice and pack the resulting slush in between the gums and cheek where that tooth was.
It wouldn’t do anything for a minute, then suddenly the pain would just turn off. It was great.
We out here g. Every other week it’s a roll of the dice on if a filling or crown will chip or crack. If only implants didn’t cost baseline $60k I’d fuck right off from the dentist bills and go full robo jaw.
It is not uncommon for people to travel from California or Las Vegas to Mexico for dental work because the expense is so high, sometimes even with insurance.
My parents used to winter in Arizona. They told me many of their neighbors used to go to Mexico for dental care, but allegedly Mexico (I would think America but my dad said Mexico) is trying to put a stop to folks crossing the border for this kind of care.
I had a cavity filled for 20 bucks in Mexico. Granted it was in zacatecas which is central Mexico but the dentist was reputable. He got his license in new York and also practices in new York. He’s from that small town so he travels there a couple months a year and offers very cheap dental work for locals since he’s from there and wants to give back to the community that helped him. Def check out tj or rosarito if you can though.
FWIW, our universal health coverage here will cover medical dental care, but not cosmetic. They'll patch up or remove your bad tooth, but I think it'd be harder to get an implant or a crown without paying for it. Weirdly, dentists are still one of the two or three basic services where people here are still willing to pay for uncovered medical attention, the others being eyecare and pediatrics.
When I needed surgery my private dentist still sent me over to the public system, though. Took a look at my X-rays, told me she wasn't gonna touch any of that without an MRI and an OR on standby and told me to go to my public doctor with a note and tell them to get me booked with a maxillofacial surgeon, which I did. It wasn't that big of a deal in the end, but the reaction was... revealing.
Aus here, for complex dental I can claim up to $800 annually on my extras cover, need braces for around $8000.
Edit: forgot to mention it’d only have been ~$2000 around 2003 when I was first told I needed them, but my parents, whom paid off our house with a year’s combined salary, couldn’t afford it. My dad argued it should come out of his existing child support payment, and I didn’t get them.
In America, dental and health insurance are separate. And many jobs that provide health insurance can often not provide dental insurance. There is a reason teeth are referred to as the “luxury bones”.
Dental is tricky in many countries. It’s delicate, easy to go wrong and very often painful. In Poland I used to do simple things like fillings using public insurance and I’ve heard many times that I’m crazy and for sure they will fuck it up. I think it’s simply because it’s it expensive and will go wrong people will think it was inevitable. But if it’s free and goes wrong people will say it’s because it was free. So in my experience even if public insurance covers dental people tend to avoid it.
In Canada eyes and teeth are not considered “health” and thus is also not covered by universal healthcare.
It was up to the provinces and employers to implement whatever coverage they wanted for those. In my place, dental care is free if you are under 18, or if you live from government assistance. The only way to get healthcare for your teeth as an adult, is to have a dental plan at work. So a young adult working minimum wage in a convenience store doesn’t have dental insurance.
From personal experience, I didn’t have dental insurance between 18 and 30 because I had low wage jobs.
However this is going to change a bit soon, because the social-democrats just pushed a vote to expand dental insurance to everyone that needs it. It’s not universal yet but now people with low wage jobs will be covered.
I get where you're coming from, but you're not making the point you think you're making - even on the NHS you'd probably have to go private for that, unless you're on benefits in which case the NHS dentist has to see you, but will make you wait months and months for an appointment with their one burnt out NHS dentist who will do their best within their limits because they're only allowed to do the bare minimum on NHS patients (edit just to clarify: this isn't how it always was, and not "intentional" that people can't see an NHS dentist, there just aren't any, a result of dire underfunding and basically privatisation).
Yes, social healthcare is amazing and worth fighting for, but social healthcare under capitalism will still always favour profit over people, and the results are clear to see, which is why the only viable long term solution is to abolish capitalism, not fight for the stale crumbs it's willing to give.
Yes, I hate it. Even here in Germany you have to pay extra if you do not want the “repairs” done in a way that your teeth look normal again. But at least, bad teeth are considered a health issue here and you get treated when you have problems with your teeth and don’t have to wait too long if it is a kind of emergency.
insurance isn't SUPPOSED to cover regular expenses. YOur car insurance doesn't pay when you take your car to the shop for maintenance. If you want that you'll need to find someone willing to sell you a dental warranty. Reach out to carshield, they aren't doing great at getting me to buy an extended warranty on my car, maybe you'll convience them to expand their business model. ;-)
If that’s the case, then why does every dental plan cover routine stuff and barely help with emergency?
Dental “insurance” is exactly the opposite of what you said it should be. It covers routine stuff but lol if you want to use it for anything else, what with their max coverage for a plan year thing and all (which routinely is far less than half of your out of pocket cost for anything other than simple fillings, and if you weren’t paying for the do-nothing insurance every year, you’d be in largely the same financial position)
In Denmark, the social democratic Nordic welfare paradise, universal healthcare does not cover dental care for adults. If you’re really poor and have an emergency you might have some luck begging the local municipality to pay for having the offending tooth pulled out but that’s about it.
The result is a wide class disparity in dental health and even people who are not poor think twice before going to the dentist, resulting in issues growing worse than they had to be.
Some private insurance exists but they are free to reject you as a customer if your dental health is already bad.
Nobody likes the current system or want to be seen defending it. The only argument that’s given for maintaining the status quo is that doing the right thing would be too expensive.
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