Pressure Points

Events haven’t been going terribly well for me  lately. Another tooth needs extracting and finding an oral surgeon who accepts the dental insurance provided by the state of Minnesota is proving to be difficult. It is bad enough that the only regular dental clinic that I could find for basic care is 40+ miles away in Rochester, but UCare Connect (Delta Dental Civic Smiles) isn’t being accepted by the places listed as accepting it online. If the support team doesn’t find me a place in 48 hours, I’ll be back to calling numbers which usually reveals they stopped accepting it within the past several years.

Adding to the woes is a missed checkup appointment this week due to Verizon delivering all my voice mails from July, August, and early September on the day before the appointment. Since I don’t get out much, the push queue seems to delay me getting them dramatically. In August, I received messages from May and July along with one from 2016!

Because I didn’t reply with a confirmation before Noon, the appointment was canceled becoming the first of two allowed strike outs before being black listed at the clinic. The messages showed up for me at 12:04 when I walked out of the church meeting house from volunteering at the family history center. My phone call a minute later was too late.

Since I have other teeth in dire shape, this appointment was a must and now it may be months before I can get another. At least I got them to give me an emergency appointment for the molar causing me to lose sleep.

Diagnosis was that the tooth needs to come out within days due to a large cavity under the filling.  With it being near a major nerve, an oral surgeon was required and they couldn’t pull it at the clinic. Antibiotics were prescribed and a warning given that if my face swelled to the point of blinding my left eye or closing off my throat that I was to call 911 or get to an ER.

Last night was difficult, not just due to the pain, but because the left side of my throat slightly swelled and felt partially paralyzed. Thankfully, the penicillin kicked in and breathing became easier after 2 AM.

The pain is not subsiding, however.

So I’m sitting here,  periodically jabbing fingers into pressure points on my jaw to alleviate the pain spreading throughout the left side of my face while contemplating how bad health care given to the disabled has become since the ACA was passed in 2009. It is reminding me very much of Eastern Block countries during the Cold War, so the idea that single payer will fix all of this is frankly ludicrous. The waits for help will continue to increase while the amount of ailments treated will likewise decrease. As messed up as things were before, at least they worked after a fashion.

I just hope I don’t have to travel all the way up to the Twin Cities to get this tooth removed. The expense of travel is already punitive just going to Rochester.

UPDATE:

Got the call back on finding oral surgeons.

Only three oral surgery clinics accept Delta Dental and they all are in the Twin Cities. One is very hard to get into and requires a consult on top of the referral, so two trips mandated there. Another only uses general anesthesia (gas) and that isn’t covered at all. With going rates being over $200 for that… well. The final option looks to be the only option though it sounds like wait times of at least a week of work days is involved.

This is not going well.