What's your play here? (Dental)

[raidenradio]

EDIT: Mods please move to Everything Else

So I've been needing to get my teeth fixed for sometime now.

Back in September a tooth got infected and I had to get some anti-biotics and painkillers. I immediately signed up for dental insurance but it wouldn't go into effect until November. So in November I start calling the dentists I have coverage to make the soonest appointment possible. My appointment is set, for March 1st (wtf). The last time I had an infection I went to a clinic that was covered by my insurance and all they did was look at me and give me a prescription. Then last week I got a bill in the mail for $200. There was an additional $200 that my insurance covered so that means they charged $400 to look at me for a minute and prescribe me medication.

So anyway two nights ago my tooth was hurting and I got this stuff to fill in the hole to keep it sealed up to hold me over til my appointment. That was a big mistake. As soon as it set it started hurting. I wanted to take it out but it was too late. Yesterday I was in agony all day. It wasn't swollen or anything just real painful. I took ibuprofen and it did nothing. I took a leftover Vicodin from my last infection and it only stopped the pain for an hour and a half.

So last night I'm actually contemplating going to the hospital but I drank a bunch of NyQuil and passed out.

I wake up this morning. No pain. Like at all. It was wierd. I went from sleeping being a nightmare to just waking up having slept 9 hours and being in absolutely no pain. Sounds good but now my cheek is a bit swollen.

There is a dentist office that is open til 6 today that you can just walk in for. My other option is to tough it out til Monday and get an appointment with another office that isn't covered by my insurance but has a payment plan so I can get work done and pay them off in installments.

So my options are:

A) Go to office today that is covered by my insurance but will have to take expensive x-rays that another office has already done. Will probably cost $200 and they'll just prescribe more anti-biotics and pain-killers

Tough it out til Monday when the office that has my x-rays will be open. Go there when I can get an appointment and get prescription and make an appointment to have the tooth pulled.

So it's a tough call. If I don't go today that's pretty much it. If the cheek does get worse I will have to go to the hospital since nowhere else will be open. If it doesn't and I can make it til Monday I will have saved myself a lot of money. I've been awake for 4 hours now and still feel no pain whatsoever.

[icecream]

sounds like it might be right on a nerve ending (Though I could be way off).

that shit fucking sucks the only way i found to relieve pain was to swish water in my mouth every 10 minutes of so.

And after enough times orajel worked amazingly well for reason it didn't take the first few times.

[davezer]

To me it sounds like the tooth is abscessed. If your cheek is swollen it most likely is. You definitely want to get it checked out ASAP. You do not want the infection getting into your blood stream, as that may make you incredibly sick and in some cases fatal. If you have any left over antibiotics (most likely amoxacillan or a generic of it) from your first prescription you might want to start taking them again.

Just a fair warning, if the tooth IS abscessed they are going to either want to do a root canal, or just straight pull the tooth depending on how much damage has been done from it.

In my personal experience, I would go with option A. Tooth pain is absolutely agonizing. I, personally, would not risk the pain coming back over the holiday weekend.

[j4m35]

get wasted, take the antibiotics, pull the tooth yourself, cauterize the wound.

don't do that, actually.

[electricsnow]

You can always try this:

[blanketbyday]

Castaway that shit.

[adamlikesmusic]

Definitely go to the dentist.

Also, when you call in November to see a dentist, and the next appointment is in March, I'd tend to say go find another dentist. (Unless every dentist that takes your health plan is booked until then, which just sucks)

[deadlenny]

I went through a similar scenario lately. If it is a back tooth just pull it out. Find a clinic. It cost me $40 to pull mine out, but some places do it a whole lot cheaper than that.

[deafmx]

you don't wanna end up like this dude

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reilly

[lechevre]

I say try to get some antibiotics today if you can. Also swish peroxide to help bring swelling down. Salt water can help too. I am going through a similar situation.

[djones0930]

Castaway that shit.