dental surgery for a 21 month old

koyote

koyote

Joined
Mar 29, 2007
Messages
5,846
MY daighter, Astrid, broke a tooth. In half. (Yes, we let our kids play outside of the rubber room. I've already got an earful of how dangerous playgrounds are from the ER) It's got the root exposed and has to come out. Apparently this requires general anesthesia for babies.

Our medical "coverage" is medi-cal. Look, my wife is a nursing student and my VA coverage doesn't extend to the kids. We're not swimming in money and private insurance costs about a grand a month. Can't wait until Jess graduates.

So, medical won't cover oral surgery on infants and toddlers unless there are 4 or more cavities. I'm not joking. Went around in circles in person for an hour on this one. THEIR dentist says the tooth has to come out, it's obviously got the root exposed and has to go. but they won't cover it because it's not 4 cavities


fuckers.


so off we go now to spend $800 we don't have, the week before Leif's 5th birthday.
 
Boy that is a bite in the ass ( no pun intended) the dam insurance companies got you over a barrel. They keep raising their prices and keep taking more and more away from us. Good luck. Doug
 
She's done, she's happy. I better sell a few more knives, though!

I should do something like that on my sig line. Would you mind if I did?
 
Sounds like you should pursue this further. I suspect that you have more coverage than you think. If Astrid were in a car wreck that mangled her face and resulted in the need for oral surgery, they would not refuse to put her face back together because she did not have cavities. So maybe go have a face to face with the insurance folks, or even see if you can get a lawyer to write a free or low cost letter. I know first hand that insurers are in the business of trying to rip off their insureds. JMO.

Edit: I don't know what medi-cal is, but if it is state sponsored coverage, consider also calling your U.S. Senator. They have a small army of constituent services worker bees who do nothing but solve problems like this in order to keep the constituents happy and so they get re-elected. Might be worth a phone call.
 
Last edited:
Amazing that emergency coverage is what they don't cover. What little kid has 4 cavities anyway? They make you pay for what you don't need and won't cover what you do. Kids need their own version of AARP -- oh, that's right, that won't work -- they don't vote.
 
what little kid has 4 cavities anyway?
In my former life as an Anesthetist I put hundreds of kids to sleep for
Gen Dentistry work. Most were kids whose Mom put them to bed with a bottle. The Milk sugars rot the teeth. I have seen two y.o.'s with every tooth containing decay. We use to call them "Milik Teeth" I find it hard to believe
there is no emergency dental coverage. I'd be calling or visiting all kinds of folk. The insurance company, the Insurance commission, insurance commissioner. As mentioned state reps, state senators, Fed reps, both Fed Senators.
 
That's terrible, I know our dental coverage is really poor but if we have an accident involving the mouth it's covered, it's just in a different section. Maybe worth looking into(about 800 maybes worth).

I hope it all works out for you.
 
Tommegow said:
In my former life as an Anesthetist I put hundreds of kids to sleep for
Gen Dentistry work. Most were kids whose Mom put them to bed with a bottle. The Milk sugars rot the teeth. I have seen two y.o.'s with every tooth containing decay. We use to call them "Milk Teeth"
Click to expand...

That is a shame. My own teeth weren't all that strong, but it didn't show up in infancy. My daughter didn't need dental work till her wisdom teeth jammed in there. I really feel bad for those kids.
 
We got in and out for a bt under a thousand, which was nice of the dentist. We'll be fighting with the insurer for sure for a while. and the State Capitol is just down the road here....
 
Man, that stinks. Hannah had soft teeth, and they had to be capped. That cost us 100% out of pocket too. We've got good health insurance, but I don't think good dental insurance exsists.
 
Christof
I'm not sure about out there but here they have places that when you sign up they go by your household income and the charges are on a sliding scale fee bases, the less you make the less you pay, it kind of equals things out between the folks that can afford those things and those that can't..

though those teeth are made to come out, of course not that early, it's to bad it's become a money issue instead of a humane issue of helping those in need..in the field.. :o

OT did you get that steel yet? if not, it should be there soon
 
We got a good deal from the dentist, really. I'm not very liberal in most senses, but health care has gotten ridiculous. I paid $100 for an xray, cleaning and a single filling in 1988 and the last time I went in is was over $300 for the exam! Not even a cleaning. America can do better than this.

The steel is in and shiny, I've been having network issues all day and haven't caught up on all my email and PMs. Already annealed some!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top