Sunday, December 26, 2010

Dental Hygenist recommends expander, insurance doesnt cover ortho? ?

I saw my dentist for the first time in 5 yrs(had no health insurance) and actually he wasn't in so I saw his terrible dental hygenist she took x-rays/cleaned/examined..came out with a bunch of cavities(not sure of the # she said he might find more?) which doesn't bother me, because genetically I'm pretty prone to them..She also mentioned I go back to my orthodontist(havent seen him in about 5 years also...) and get an expander on the bottom of my teeth if I could..(I have overcrowding since my wisdom teeth came in/not wearing my retainer..dammit.) Well here's my issue, my dental insurance doesn't cover orthodontics(wonderrrful..) and I'm not exactly rich(more like starving college student, whom mommy & daddy havent loaned me a penny since I was 13..) and I don't know what to do..I've made the appointment with the orthodontist to get a permanent metal bracket on the back of my two front teeth put back on..(if he can, that happened almost 2 years ago)..and I don't want to mention the expander and have him start doing things and not be able to pay my rent this month..What should I do? If I don't get this expander, will my dentist just stop seeing me?
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If finances are an issue then you should not be considering ortho at this time. Ortho is elective treatment mostly for the purposes of cosmetics. You should be working on getting any cavities fixed. As for the hygenist, I don't know what to say. They should not be diagnosing you, especially in ortho. A hygenist may notice cavities and mention it to you and have doctor verify that you do have cavities but for the most she should not be doing the final diagnosis of it. The other odd thing is if you do have cavities why are you getting braces done first? Ortho is not to be started until the mouth is stable. This is negligence on the part of orthodontist who puts the braces on knowing there are cavities. I would seek a second opinion and if you do have cavities get them worked on first.
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