Teeth Ouchies

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

Almost a week ago, my jaw was hurting but I thought I had just slept funny. It didn't get better, so here I am with a throbbing mouth and no insurance, trying frantically to find something cheap and quick. figures I'm indulging in restaurant week this evening and I can barely stand to chew soup :P

tips, tufts or BU advice, thoughts on West Somerville Dental and root canal stories of cheapness welcome...


Yes, I read through a lot of the previous Dentist tags, and it was helpful- glad I can rule out Gentle Dental!! On google I saw a blurb from them for $57 cleanings, but that doesn't sound worth it since I'll definitely need more.

I just made an appointment with West Somerville Dental at 124 College Ave and was wondering if anyone had any words on them. She said, literally "Nobody is here today," but I scheduled to have Xrays and see someone tomorrow and then go in for a cleaning on Monday, which they are being nice and letting me split the cost for a coupon I received- $67 for new patient cleanings and diagnosis. I feel a little sketched out about a place with coupons and not much wait, but I'm in a lot of pain and there are far too many dentists in this area. I'm tempted to just walk along broadway to college and go to the doors of the all the places and see who will take me Now, at least for a cleaning so I know what I'm dealing with.

I think for the real deal I may have to go through Tufts or BU since I'm a broke girl. Tufts emergency said that, if I'm lucky and get there at 7am, they can only help the pain for $77 and then I could have the full procedure the last week in September for under a grand (i forgot to ask if they do a payment plan). I was told that the only way to get that Sept fix is if I show up first for an initial chance walk-in visit, which would suck if I go to this other place first, but I just can't wait for a "chance" to be seen.
BU's site uses a lot of PDFs for their info and I have an archaic and unruly computer so I can't see anything :(

How many of you have done the Tufts waiting lottery? I'm worried about relying on that, not to mention I don't want to drag myself Anywhere before 10am!


**edit**
Has anyone ever gone through Harvard? They weren't very helpful over the phone and I had to leave a message for the root canal lady even though I insisted that I'm not positive What I need done, I just hurt. They wouldn't give me any estimates at all, even after i asked if a cleaning would be under $100, there was "No way to know" :P

Oh, and very importantly... how long does it take to get over this? I don't have sick days at work, but I assume I'll have to at least take off the day I have it done so I need to work that out too :(

So at this point, I'll see what they find tomorrow. I was wondering if some of you could give me estimates of how much you've paid for an uninsured root canal (specifically in the molar region).
Yes, I'm that person that drives 5 miles out of the way to save 5 cents on gas, if you can't tell ;)

Comments

[veek.livejournal.com]

Call BU Dental, talk to them. Their number is 617.638.4670. I've been there and had great work done by very young, thorough and interested doctors; I like the place. But then, I have insurance, so have no idea how much things cost for those who don't.

I do know they have walk-in clinics on Thursdays and Fridays; don't know whether their clinics are any different from Tufts'.

Good luck.

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

I've been to W.Somerville Dental a couple times and have been happy with the work. But I have no idea how the cost compares to BU or Tufts.

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

whew, glad to see a positive vote for them! what all did you have done there?

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

I had several cavities filled.

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

thanks for the number, i'm goin crosseyed looking at all this crap online!

their walk-ins are more expensive, $130, but it sounds like the chance to be seen is much higher. she couldn't give me an estimate on the cost or wait for any real oral surgery. the location sounds harder to get to, i've never heard of the CT1 bus but at least i have a car.

[damsel-ophelia.livejournal.com]

IIRC (unless things have changed in the last three years, I used to work there) - at BU Dental the 130.00 includes the x-ray for your chart as well. Root canals (at least on morals) are done in the post-doc clinic, not the pre-doc clinic.

Dental school treatment is not quick (the appointments are generally longer), but much less expensive.

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

how much does a root canal run? or a removal of all four wisdoms uninsured? how much does it run in the real world? why don't they have these damn quotes online! sorry for the outburt... but thanks for your help is what i meant to say :)

[damsel-ophelia.livejournal.com]

No worries - the big problem with posting rates for dental work is that you can't really give accurate treatment estimates without seeing the patient. I actually don't know how much the root canal or the wisdom teeth removal would be at BU - I worked in Implantology, so I don't know off of the top of my head.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

The students at Tufts are good, and they're well supervised by faculty and residents, but it's a pain to get through the bureaucracy. Before they will do anything and assign you to a student, you have to go through an intake visit that lasts a couple of hours and then wait for a treatment plan to be approved. If you are in a hurry this isn't going to help you now, I'm afraid. Also the whole school (except, I guess, emergency) shuts down in August which is why they are having you wait.

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

sooo it never occurred to me that it's technically summer break for students right now! i just assumed they were booked until the end of next month, but that makes more sense.

kinda sucks that they force you to do the initial visit first, but at least they did tell me that on the phone.
so after you get through that, can you just make appointments for regular clean ups and such?

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Basically what happens is that every four to six months you get a call from your student and you do a bit of negotiating as to what available slots the school has that month will fit your schedule. They don't book for months in advance.

[nungnung.livejournal.com]

I'm in the throes of treatment at Tufts, and it's not speedy but it is very, very good. I'm getting better care than I've received in years, and at a fraction of the cost.

My initial visit was for a broken tooth, and I did the waiting room lottery. I got there at about 7:30 am and I was the third person to sign the list. You can write your name down and then wander off for a while, so you're not stuck sitting in the waiting room for hours. I went out for breakfast and came back at 8:30 and was ready when the students came swarming in to pick up the emergency cases. I have no idea how many people they take in a day, but the time I was there no one seemed to be left behind.

Good luck - tooth pain is some of the worst pain, IMHO. I totally empathize.

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

that's encouraging... too bad my dumb ass didn't look into this further last night so that i could have tried my chance this morning :/

bright dental

[rebeccacceber.livejournal.com]

I adore Karen Bright of Bright Dental. She is on Kirkland street near the corner of Beacon a few doors down from Dali. I don't know what it would cost, but i didn't have insurance and it cost $80 for cleaning and the exam. She is very understanding of students/people without insurance, so you could give it a try.

Here's an emergency # given to me by their clinic to use during their August break

[zeldablue.livejournal.com]

My student dentist gave me this number in case I had any terrible pain and needed treatment during the dental students one month break:

617 636 6509

I had a badly infected tooth in late Nov and the pain was of course killing me. I went to Tufts Dental and was seen within an hour. I had an emergency root canal and a temporary crown within two hours after that. The student performing the procedure had an assistant plus two dentist-instructors overseeing their group.

Since then I've had follow up treatment with a student assigned to my case and they really do a good, thorough job as you are their work for their instructors to grade them on and allow them to become dentists at the end of their term.

Unfortunately, they are closed in August. I know this because my new student dentist has to wait until Sep. 3 to see what his schedule will be-- so that is Tufts downfall.

About insurance or no insurance:

If you have Mass Health (Medicaid) your fillings are free and root canals and other procedures are apparently very reasonable compared to what you would pay out of pocket at a dentist office.

If you have no dental insurance (that would include me and thousands of others) they will still create a treatment plan with you and take you on as a patient. There is an initial fee of about $100-125 (this is not for the emergency clinic, mind you) for the four hour exam in which you get full X-rays and are examined by four different dental instructors/ dentists who each specialize in a different kind of care (one is a periodontist, another an endodontist, etc.). It's great because the instructors interact with both you and the student. Personally, I learned that I had TMJ and was told how I could ease it.

Without insurance the root canals tend (please keep in mind this is a rough estimate as every patient is different) to run $450- $600, that isn't cheap but it's as close to accessible as I've been able to find without dental insurance.

All in all, I've had a positive experience with Tufts. The instructors and *most* of the students seem to understand that it can be difficult to get good dental care even if you are working full time and have other medical coverage. They treat everybody from the recently homeless to college students to professionals and they don't pass judgement on their clients.

Also, if you're like me and have lotsa questions and need to know exactly what they are doing to you every moment, this is a great place for that too.

Re: Here's an emergency # given to me by their clinic to use during their August break

[apricot3.livejournal.com]

oooh.. that emergency line sounds like a golden ticket! i'm not in dire need of it, thankfully.
when i called Tufts they gave me the hours, so at least it sounds as if they still accept random cleanings this month.

my sister had TMJ surgery and my mother has gingivitis so it would be excellent to see all these specialists at once. i was soley Xrayed and poked but they gave me some penicillin to bring down swelling and a few painkillers but the pain seems to have lessened anyway (cleaning is on thursday). i need an oral surgeon, so i suppose one morning when i'm having trouble sleeping i'll just drag myself to chinatown.

...would i be remiss to ponder that it's probably better to see school clinics near the End of a term as opposed to the beginning? i mean, i'm sure they won't screw up and teachers are watching over... i'm just Sayin, y'know.
i'm just glad to hear that they do call and make appointments, i was afraid that it was a constant lottery. i hadn't considered this as a fix for low cost excellent care when i'm Not having pain!

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the students are well supervised and have to have their work signed off on by instructors. You need to allow yourself an extra half hour or so at least for the exam.

I wish I could say the same for the front desk help. The lines are extremely long, the desks are understaffed, and the people on desk aren't very good (or are too tired to do good work). Get there at least half an hour if not more before your appointment.

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

I don't have any recommendations for cheap root canals. I had mine done by a root canal specialist in Arlington (Dr. Machalinski) that I was referred to by my dentist; she did a great job and was very nice but I don't think it was particularly cheap. One thing to consider, if you don't get it done the right way now... you're going to be paying again just to have your tooth extracted.

In terms of what will happen on the day of/day after -- I had my root canal done in the morning, it took two hours, I took some advil and went straight to work. For me, it was more about my jaw being tired/aching from being open for 2 hours. It actually kinda hurt more than day afterwards than the day of. I think you can manage to go to work the day of, definitely the day after... especially if you don't have the time to take off.