Dentist experience

[kphoger]

When Obamacare first came out, my wife and I signed up.  Then, shortly thereafter, my employer was required to start offering health insurance.  Because they then offered health insurance, we no longer qualified for an Obamacare plan.  Unfortunately, the plan offered by my employer was approximately 6,420,000 times more expensive per month with less coverage.  So we dumped health insurance altogether.  Back to where we were before Obamacare.

I fully expect to pay cash for whatever dental work I end up needing, but I'm not about to sink money into it if I don't actually need it yet.

[tolbs17]

BTW, I went tonl Eastern Pines Dental.

[hbelkins]

Not sure how HB was unable to keep his previous plan and why it wasn't "grandfathered in."  I never had a plan through the exchange and I still get the form that states it counts as health insurance.  If his plan was better than what was being offered, then it should have met the requirements as well.

It was never explained publicly, to my knowledge. It was mentioned in a fall 2013 meeting of the Kentucky Personnel Board, during which a representative of the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet's Division of Employee Benefits (or whatever it was called at the time) explained to the board that the policies offered under the Kentucky Employees Health Plan were not eligible to be grandfathered in. Speculation has been that the old policies had lifetime benefit limits or certain verboten exclusions in coverage. I tried to find the link to the minutes of that meeting, but I'm getting a 503 service unavailable error.

Back then, I looked up the old benefits and compared them to the new ones, and they came up lacking in every way. I get reminded of it every year in my Facebook memories.

It should be pointed out that dental coverage has never been included in our health insurance. (Neither has vision). In the past, we were given options for payroll deduction for several third-party insurers and plans, but that was scrapped a couple of years ago in favor of optional plans offered through the administrator. (We're self-insured but the program is administered by Anthem BCBS.)

Does a temporary or permanent crown feel better?

By all means, a permanent crown. The temp one is quickly designed at the dentist's office and is meant to be just that -- temporary. It's to cover the stub of the tooth that is to be covered while the permanent crown is being fabricated offsite. Very often the temporary crown won't fit perfectly. I had one years ago that had a noticeable edge at the bottom of the crown near the gum line that my tongue was drawn to.

My wife kept a temporary crown for years. She got it when she was a teenager and for some reason, her parents never took her back to get a permanent one installed. We got quite good at putting it back on, as it would occasionally come off. She finally had a permanent one made and has been very happy with it.

The permanent crown will fit better and will feel better. Trust me on this one.

c0v1d

0b@m@care

You know we can't afford one of those high-falutin' automoderator bots that social media sites have, right? We're all humans that can read that...

The only real advantage is when one of you gets the bright idea of rendering–oh, I don't know–all instances of "Alanland" as "Magical Place of Destiny" or something.  If, say, HB were worried that all instances of "COVID" might get similarly messed with, then typing it funny would make sense.

It's getting to be a habit. I posted on Facebook about an encounter with a co-worker in Frankfort who told me she hadn't been vaccinated. I spelled out the word without mentioning the viral disease for which shots are currently being promoted. FB inserted its standard nag about information on the jab. So I edited the post to the altered spelling, substituting characters for certain letters, and the notation vanished. So I'm getting in the habit of doing that everywhere.

Let's keep politics out of this

Politics has nothing to do with the fact that I can't really afford to go to the dentist anymore, and I could prior to the passage of a certain piece of federal legislation.

And learn how to trim your quotes. 

[Scott5114]

Not sure how HB was unable to keep his previous plan and why it wasn't "grandfathered in."  I never had a plan through the exchange and I still get the form that states it counts as health insurance.  If his plan was better than what was being offered, then it should have met the requirements as well.

I don't know anything about H.B.'s plan, but most of the time whenever people weren't able to keep their plans after ACA, it's because their plan sucked and didn't cover everything the ACA required it to, but the person complaining didn't mind because it was cheap.

[hbelkins]

Not sure how HB was unable to keep his previous plan and why it wasn't "grandfathered in."  I never had a plan through the exchange and I still get the form that states it counts as health insurance.  If his plan was better than what was being offered, then it should have met the requirements as well.

I don't know anything about H.B.'s plan, but most of the time whenever people weren't able to keep their plans after ACA, it's because their plan sucked and didn't cover everything the ACA required it to, but the person complaining didn't mind because it was cheap.

My current plan is actually marginally cheaper than the one I lost, and it even provides me with an extra $1,000 for my FSA, but the out-of-pocket expenses I now have to pay eat into that pretty quickly.

I went to the doctor today for blood work and prescription refills. If I remember right, that visit in the past would have cost me $15 for a co-pay and the lab work an additional amount (somewhere between $5 and $15, I don't remember for sure). I will get a bill from the doctor's office for $80 and a bill from LabCorp for probably $50.

Next month, I have an appointment with a specialist. Under the old plan, that would cost me $21 out of pocket. I'm looking at a bill for around $100 for that one.

I hesitate to inquire as to what dental service prices are these days. A clean and check is probably $150 now.

[tolbs17]

Does a temporary or permanent crown feel better?

By all means, a permanent crown. The temp one is quickly designed at the dentist's office and is meant to be just that -- temporary. It's to cover the stub of the tooth that is to be covered while the permanent crown is being fabricated offsite. Very often the temporary crown won't fit perfectly. I had one years ago that had a noticeable edge at the bottom of the crown near the gum line that my tongue was drawn to.

My wife kept a temporary crown for years. She got it when she was a teenager and for some reason, her parents never took her back to get a permanent one installed. We got quite good at putting it back on, as it would occasionally come off. She finally had a permanent one made and has been very happy with it.

The permanent crown will fit better and will feel better. Trust me on this one.

I'll have to take your word on it cause the dentist had the wrong crown so they put the temporary one back on.

[Scott5114]

Not sure how HB was unable to keep his previous plan and why it wasn't "grandfathered in."  I never had a plan through the exchange and I still get the form that states it counts as health insurance.  If his plan was better than what was being offered, then it should have met the requirements as well.

I don't know anything about H.B.'s plan, but most of the time whenever people weren't able to keep their plans after ACA, it's because their plan sucked and didn't cover everything the ACA required it to, but the person complaining didn't mind because it was cheap.

My current plan is actually marginally cheaper than the one I lost, and it even provides me with an extra $1,000 for my FSA, but the out-of-pocket expenses I now have to pay eat into that pretty quickly.

Have you considered that the changes in out-of-pocket cost may have nothing to do with the law changing, and may be just be a cash grab on the part of the insurance company or doctor's office, using the law as a pretext?

When I worked at the casino, there was a kerfuffle for a few months where they started trying to withhold an extra $50/month from our paychecks, supposedly due to the ACA. I watched the bill very closely as it went through Congress and knew that the reasoning they presented to us was totally bogus, but because this is a conservative area, they thought they could use Obama as a boogeyman and get everyone mad at him instead of the company. Well, they didn't realize that people would be both mad at Obama and still miss the $50/month enough that they would start getting jobs elsewhere. A couple months later they "found out" that the ACA didn't actually require them to withhold $50/month after all, and they stopped doing it. Huh! Imagine that!

[hbelkins]

Someone in Frankfort must have fed the hamsters that run the wheel that powers the servers that host the Personnel Board's site.

Mr. Cowles handed out a summary of the employees' health plan for 2014 to the Board members and  staff.  Mr. Cowles stated that the health plan for 2014 will lose its "grandfather"  status and had to be redesigned, using the states of Tennessee and Georgia as models.

This was all the public explanation that was given.

[dlsterner]

Similar to 1995hoo's situation, I've been seeing the same dentist since 1985 (geez, 36 years).  We joke about how my folder is like two inches thick and has been taped up several times due to splits.

He has a good "chair-side manner", always checks that I am sufficiently numbed, explains things well, and never rushes things.

I'm sure he is nearing retirement age, so I hope I do well if I ever need to find a new dentist.

[Rothman]

HB, although dental and vision are separate from our health benefits, they do not cost more in terms of a premium.  That said, the dental plan had gone way downhill in terms of dentists that would accept it.

Of course, our contract has just been revised, so I look forward to how it will change. 

[kphoger]

I don't know anything about H.B.'s plan, but most of the time whenever people weren't able to keep their plans after ACA, it's because their plan sucked and didn't cover everything the ACA required it to, but the person complaining didn't mind because it was cheap.

Meaning they were no longer able to keep a plan they actually liked and wanted–having instead to get a more expensive plan with bells and whistles they don't even want.

All I know from personal experience is that, when ACA first launched, it looked like a good deal to my wife and me and we signed up on the exchange.  Then, the next year, premiums across the board started going up.  And the small business I work for was required to offer health insurance, which then meant my wife and me were no longer eligible for the ACA exchange plan.  In order for us to afford my company's health insurance, we'd have to pay an arm and two legs every month, and we'd still get crappy coverage with high deductibles unless we wanted to pay another arm every month.

Then again, being on the church personnel committee, I've seen how much our pastor has to pay for his family's health insurance, and it comes to roughly half my family's income.  It's insane how expensive health insurance costs.

Dental work, though, is something it's often decently affordable to pay for out of pocket with cash.

[hbelkins]

Dental work, though, is something it's often decently affordable to pay for out of pocket with cash.

That hasn't been my experience. I thought routine care (clean and check) and standard procedures (fillings) were costly years ago.

HB, although dental and vision are separate from our health benefits, they do not cost more in terms of a premium.  That said, the dental plan had gone way downhill in terms of dentists that would accept it.

Of course, our contract has just been revised, so I look forward to how it will change. 

We don't have contracts. And vision and dental have never been a part of our standard insurance plans. They have always cost extra and were optional.

A few years ago, the state went away from all payroll deductions for third-party insurance (dental, vision, life, AD&D) and instead offered only plans through the administrator (in this case, dental and vision through Anthem BCBS). I had a payroll-deducted life insurance policy and had to switch to automatic bank drafts to keep the policy. My understanding is that the third-party insurers that had arrangements with the state to offer policies via payroll deduction were not happy. I can see the state's point in that it's easier to not have to deal with processing all the payroll deductions, but it was still an aggravation for the companies and their customers to make the alternate payment operations.

All that being said, I may look at the dental options when open enrollment comes back up in a few months, see what the monthly costs and the out-of-pocket costs would be, and see it it would be worth it for a year to have a bunch of dental work done.

I'll have to take your word on it cause the dentist had the wrong crown so they put the temporary one back on.

That happens. The lab must have shipped the wrong one.

The permanent fitting process isn't bad. The dentist will pop the temporary crown off, put the permanent crown on, and have you bite on a piece of colored film to see how well it fits. If it needs adjustment, they'll go grind and shave on it, put it back on, and try again. When they're satisfied with your bite and you're comfortable with the way it fits and feels, they'll affix it permanently. It's not a painful process at all.

[bandit957]

Bad teeth are cool.

But I've had unusually good luck with dentists. I had the same dentist from as far back as I could remember all the way into college. He was a nice guy, and he was fairly competent, but I hated going there.

I didn't visit a dentist again until I was about 30. I got a new dentist then. She was very brash, but she was also competent. That's when I discovered that my teeth were pretty much rotted, which is pretty cool. She actually pulled 2 teeth, but I didn't know she was going to pull them until the day she pulled them. They used a local anesthetic, but they didn't put me under. I could feel them crushing the tooth as they pulled it, but it didn't hurt much, because of the anesthetic. I remember walking home from the dentist and spitting out blood every so often after she pulled them.

After that series of visits, it was years before I visited a dentist again. The dentists at this practice were pretty competent also. But I did have to go to a surgeon to get 2 more teeth pulled. That time, they put me under.

I think I have 20 fillings. But I'm only missing 5 teeth.

I have never had anything done about the rather obvious crookedness, because back in the 1970s that was considered fairly normal. I have to get very thin dental floss though. Unlike people in the 1970s, however, I don't have silver fillings. That was cool back in the '70s when people had those. My upper right lateral incisor very clearly grew in all wrong, and my original dentist always pressed on it with his finger when I visited. But at least now when I go to the dentist, I can always recognize which x-ray is mine.

[kphoger]

I could feel them crushing the tooth as they pulled it, but it didn't hurt much, because of the anesthetic. I remember walking home from the dentist and spitting out blood every so often after she pulled them.

I once hitchhiked home from the dentist in downtown Glen Ellyn (IL) to my home in Wheaton, after having had half my mouth Novocained for a deep-cleaning.  A driver stopped, asked where I was headed, and then I realized that I probably sounded like a drunk guy answering him–not being able to control half my mouth while speaking.

[Rothman]

Man.  Makes me happy I don't work for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

[Scott5114]

Man.  Makes me happy I don't work for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Sounds like someone's getting wealthy and it ain't the commoners.

[kphoger]

Man.  Makes me happy I don't work for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Sounds like someone's getting wealthy and it ain't the commoners.

Communism at work:  once the wealth is spread amongst the commoners, there's no wealth left for anyone to have.

Wait, did I just accuse Kentucky of being Communist?

[tolbs17]

But cavities are a pain in the ass.

[dlsterner]

But cavities are a pain in the ass.

Most people don't get cavities in their ass.

[tolbs17]

But cavities are a pain in the ass.

Most people don't get cavities in their ass.

[kphoger]

But cavities are a pain in the ass.

Most people don't get cavities in their ass.

Well, that would certainly make cavity searches more difficult.

[jmacswimmer]

But cavities are a pain in the ass.

Most people don't get cavities in their ass.

Well, that would certainly make cavity searches more difficult.

Not if you combine it with a prostate exam.

[kphoger]

How would they do a prostate exam, if you don't have a cavity in your ass?

[hbelkins]

How would they do a prostate exam, if you don't have a cavity in your ass?

How can you have your pudding if  you don't eat your meat?

[kkt]

I hesitate to inquire as to what dental service prices are these days. A clean and check is probably $150 now.

In my relatively expensive area, they bill at about $120 for a cleaning and check, but pretty much no one actually pays that.  People with insurance, the insurance pays the negotiated rate of about $80 and the patients have no out of pocket because the insurance company comes out better if people get preventative care.  Cash customers pay a discounted rate for paying at time of service instead of being billed.