7mo ago

Idk what to do

I have incredible tooth pain rn and I'm not employed and don't have dental insurance. To my knowledge a hospital won't do anything unless it's an emergency. But it's not like I can do much of anything besides attempt to sleep through it and treat it with oral benzocaine and oragel. It's been like this on and off for the last 4 years. I'm so distraught that I'm considering waking into traffic. I hate this and just want to stop existing. Is there anything y'all can recommend? I'm in Pinellas county Florida if that helps. Currently donating plasma and the sodium citrate is seemingly making the pain worse.

27 comments

Especially since it's been going on for 4 years you should definitely do whatever you can to get it looked at asap. If you can't afford a dentist you can look for dental education programs near you that offer free or cheap services (since students will be working on you). I think there are some in St Pete or Clearwater, but if nothing else USF should def have one.
Sorry comrade, hope you can get some relief
- Bet. This might be the way. Thank you
  
  Strongly second this. If you go in, be adamant that you want a full extraction. It's much cheaper than any alternative, and not terribly complicated. It should keep the problem from reoccurring. Before we met, my wife had a number of teeth pulled this way, and it was significantly cheaper than other alternatives. If they try to talk you into saving the tooth, just insist that they pull it.
  
  Good luck!

Have you called the community dental clinic? They're a nonprofit that says they do free dental care for uninsured people in your county. https://communitydtlclinic.org/
Or if you can get together $80 you can get seen at a county clinic, but that might just be for an exam and not treatment. https://pinellas.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/clinical-and-nutrition-services/dental/index.html
My first thought was to look into what it would take to get you on Medicaid (a process I've done dozens of times in my state), but apparently Florida only does it for parents of children and blind people? Awful.
- Half blind, could just pluck out my left eye and be good to go

Not sure if you've looked at this already, Pinellas County Dept of Health has a dental clinic that offers low-cost to free services for the uninsured: https://pinellas.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/clinical-and-nutrition-services/dental/index.html. I would reach out to them ASAP. An abscess is no joke and absolutely an emergency- extractions performed in ERs are actually covered by health insurance, so if you've got Medicaid or something similar, they should eventually help pick up the bill if it comes to that.

If you live near a college that has a dental program, you might be able to have it looked at by students, supervised by an instructor. That usually doesn't cost much, since, you're really doing them a service by being there.
- I talked with someone with the FL dept of health and I'm going to be going tomorrow to get more deets and sign up for aca (or blue card) and hopefully they'll see me without having to pay anything. If not it'll be 80 and I can do that Friday after my 2nd dono this week. If all else fails I'll see if SPC or USF can rip out these suckers. I've been so bleh and downtrodden about it so I've been thinking for awhile my best bet was to hope I could cause myself enough issues to be seen by an er, because usually when I'd look, it's just advertisements for Aspen or Dick and Jane's family dental clinic or w.e. and they'd be asking for so much $$$. Anyways between your suggestion and the other comrades I should have this remedied quickly.
  
  That's awesome. Good luck comrade. Teeth shit fucking sucks. It took me years to claw back my gum line from gingivitis. Having ADHD wasn't doing me any good with that. I've had teeth rot out due to not keeping up with it. So I know how you feel. Dental offices are such shameful places in my experience. Glad you got some good advice and a game plan.

Uh you need to go to a dentist. Max out a credit card if you need to, fucking rob a bank. A decaying tooth can literally kill you
- They're not gonna see me unless I have money. I can try but imo it's not gonna happen. I still owe evara health like $100 for the one tooth they did remove. Currently at $0 about to be paid $45 for donating and I need that to live and get my situationship partner to his interview tomorrow. Even if I'm not a fan right now and want to breakup and leave, he still needs a job and that'll at least give me more piece of mind that I haven't fucked him over.
  
  Don't set yourself alight to keep someone else warm. From what you describe, it certainly sounds like he is taking advantage of you.
- And kinda wish it'd hurry up if it could and not be so dramatic giving me headaches and just the worst pain ever.

In my cursed experience, this pain typically subsides after a few days - however you want to look out for any signs of infection. Typically what happens is a feedback loop between irritation causing swelling causing teeth to move around causing more irritation causing more swelling. Even though over-the-counter pain meds do very little for the pain, you should take ibuprofen to help reduce the swelling (I AM NOT A DOCTOR).
If it is infected, you will need a prescription for antibiotics. Infections can potentially be very dangerous. Without solving the root cause, infection can return down the road, requiring more exotic antibiotics to treat.
I just hat a bunch of teeth yanked after being in the same situation for many years. Death to America.

Definitely get it looked at by a dentist when you can. Tooth extractions aren't as expensive as a lot of dental procedures.
Until you can get to a dentist, spend about 2-3 minutes soaking that part of your mouth in a warm water and salt mix, 2-3 times a day. This will help prevent infections and can cure a mild one.

If you don't have any money, this probably won't help, but I've gotten dental discount plans before to save myself a couple hundred dollars on getting 2 teeth pulled.
https://www.dentalplans.com/dental-savings-plans/
I seem to remember fish antibiotics being a solution for some people. I've also been lucky enough that I've gone to a minuteclinic place and met a nurse or doc that was nice enough to give me a rx for antibiotics without charging me for the appointment. Amazon has been doing some telehealth type stuff too. IDK if they'd give you just the rx for elsewhere, but Publix used to have a list of free meds you could get with RX, now they offer like a discount on some of them.
- Be REALLY careful going this route, but yeah, they do sell erythromycin powder at most aquarium stores to treat topical infections on aquarium fish. I have no idea how that shit is dosed. Have a back story just in case someone asks. Like "I was just at my mom's house and noticed one of her gouramis has a bacterial infection on its side. It's not fungus and it's definitely not ick."
  For antibiotics I'd rather try an UrgentCare or something first. It is counterproductive to take antibiotics without the correct dosage and schedule. It can lead to antibiotic resistance, which is very bad (because then the solution for infection becomes amputation).

Hopefully it's just a non-critical tooth that needs an extraction.
I think my tooth extraction was like $35 - obviously they'll take on some other fees but the process itself could be quickly fundraised.
The main problem is you might get mis-diagnosed a few times - especially if the professionals are trying to "save the tooth". I was about to get a full root canal when the endodontist finally discovered that the tooth was cracked all the way through the roots and required extraction. Dude, saved me a ton of time and money and that was after like 3 mis-diagnoses.
Sorry you are going through this, tooth pain is miserable.

Have you looked into local dental schools? I don't know how it is around you but where I am you can get work done for discounted prices since you'll have students working on you.

I don't have a great answer unfortunately. Dental pain can be considered an emergency often. All I can say is to call around to dentists. See how much it'll be to pull the tooth (assuming it's only one) and ask about payment plans. You can also see about ACA plans, but finding a dentist that will take it will be difficult.
- Ok. Fair enough. Since there is a hospital nearby I'm still thinking of popping in and at least seeing if they can recommend this or that or give me resources to get a better idea of how to tackle this
  
  It's worth a shot