Emergency Dental Surgery
Spende geschützt
Earlier this week I had a backpacking/camping trip with a quarantine buddy. Alas, my body had other plans. My mouth erupted into intense pain from a problem tooth I had seen my dentist about back in March. I wanted to take care of it back then, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was impossible. I also had a gum infection simultaneously that was the worser of the two that I took care of mid-June, when dental procedures reopened. This tooth was next on the list after the next payday.
But the longer we drove, the worse my pain got. My backpacking partner halted the trip to take me to an emergency dental clinic in South Carolina where it turns out that due to the COVID delay, the small cavity in that tooth had turned necrotic, killing the root nerve and leaving a calcified pulpal stone. The dentist did a pulpal debridement. He said this would bring relief and I was good to go backpacking! I was thrilled! Barely an hour later, the pain returned, as bad as before the procedure.The pain was unbearable and we turned around to take me home.
I called my dentist, but he wasn't available til Monday. With my pain level consistently at a 7, I couldn't wait that long. I found an emergency dentist near me and scheduled for the next morning. Come to find out, while the previous dentist may have had the best intentions, he made things worse. One whole side, that happened to go up into my sinus, still had a live nerve in it. On top of that, either the infection itself (most likely) or the previous dentist actually PUNCTURED my left sinus. No wonder I was still in pain!
Cue a 3 hour root canal from HELL.
I've never had so much pain from a dental procedure in my life. It was unreal. I hyperventilated and cried and screamed, even though they did everything by the book and with plenty of anaesthetic. While they were at a loss as to why I was having so much pain (level 9 on the pain scale) after they took the nerve out, they still took good care of me, kept me in the back office to monitor me on hydrocodone (as I didn't have a great reaction to it the first time). The dentist said in the 30K+ root canals he's done, he'd never seen pain this bad. I'm now a day out from the procedure and thankfully I just feel really sore and tired. I'm now down to pain level of 3.
Sadly, this has all been extremely costly as I have no dental insurance. The procedure in South Carolina was $415. While it took most of my bank account, I could still pay it. The final root canal though? $3,000! They charged me for a regular root canal (crown, etc.) rather than the speciality, endodontist-level root canal that it actually was as they had pity for this getting so bad due to COVID restrictions. They've put me on a payment plan, but I still can't afford it. I only make $1,200 a month from my normal job (which I love and am very grateful for), but with this plus still paying $1,200 for the gum infection procedure last month, and $3,000 for my hearing aids, I'm at a loss. I can't afford this.
So I am asking for help.
But the longer we drove, the worse my pain got. My backpacking partner halted the trip to take me to an emergency dental clinic in South Carolina where it turns out that due to the COVID delay, the small cavity in that tooth had turned necrotic, killing the root nerve and leaving a calcified pulpal stone. The dentist did a pulpal debridement. He said this would bring relief and I was good to go backpacking! I was thrilled! Barely an hour later, the pain returned, as bad as before the procedure.The pain was unbearable and we turned around to take me home.
I called my dentist, but he wasn't available til Monday. With my pain level consistently at a 7, I couldn't wait that long. I found an emergency dentist near me and scheduled for the next morning. Come to find out, while the previous dentist may have had the best intentions, he made things worse. One whole side, that happened to go up into my sinus, still had a live nerve in it. On top of that, either the infection itself (most likely) or the previous dentist actually PUNCTURED my left sinus. No wonder I was still in pain!
Cue a 3 hour root canal from HELL.
I've never had so much pain from a dental procedure in my life. It was unreal. I hyperventilated and cried and screamed, even though they did everything by the book and with plenty of anaesthetic. While they were at a loss as to why I was having so much pain (level 9 on the pain scale) after they took the nerve out, they still took good care of me, kept me in the back office to monitor me on hydrocodone (as I didn't have a great reaction to it the first time). The dentist said in the 30K+ root canals he's done, he'd never seen pain this bad. I'm now a day out from the procedure and thankfully I just feel really sore and tired. I'm now down to pain level of 3.
Sadly, this has all been extremely costly as I have no dental insurance. The procedure in South Carolina was $415. While it took most of my bank account, I could still pay it. The final root canal though? $3,000! They charged me for a regular root canal (crown, etc.) rather than the speciality, endodontist-level root canal that it actually was as they had pity for this getting so bad due to COVID restrictions. They've put me on a payment plan, but I still can't afford it. I only make $1,200 a month from my normal job (which I love and am very grateful for), but with this plus still paying $1,200 for the gum infection procedure last month, and $3,000 for my hearing aids, I'm at a loss. I can't afford this.
So I am asking for help.
Organisator
Briana Lamb
Organisator
Atlanta, GA