Dental expense help for Kell - crowns, bridges, dentures

Picture it, late April, 2024. I'm feeling a little thing in my bottom right teethies. Something I fear and dread. I call my dentist and I make an appointment, making sure to reiterate about my nitrous requirement. He takes a peek while I sit in the guest seat because my fear is all about the horizontal death trap. My gums look inflamed, all I need is a deep cleaning, we can do it right now. Perfect! Crank on the nitro, numb me up, we go scrubbing. Later that night, my whole bottom right jaw area swells up and begins to throb with such bad pain. I'm tossing Tylenol down my throat with reckless abandon. I can't take ibuprofen thanks to having ulcerative colitis but I obviously don't care about my liver. Nurse line says to go to ER. They get me on two IV antibiotics and an IV steroid, hit me with two shots of Dilaudid. I go home with the take home versions of all of them. I go back to my dentist, with pus coming out of my gums and tears coming out of my eyes. I now need two root canals. This was not even a few days after the cleaning. More antibiotics, more pain meds. Go in to get the root canals a week later. I now have nubs with no crowns and the next teeth are VERY loose. Not to worry dentist says, the ligaments are just inflamed. Here, more antibiotics and pain meds. Blehhh. Nearly a month of this. I go back for a check with no change, still pus, still wiggles. You need a deep cleaning! Oh no! No way! I'd like a second opinion. I go to periodontal specialist person. Oh! The infection is now in my jaw. These two wiggly teeth are not salvageable, need to be pulled, get bone grafts, clean it all out, more pain meds. Ok. Of the 32 teeth a human comes with, that will leave me with 19, including one wisdom tooth. I don't know what to do here. I can use a credit card because I am privileged enough to have good credit. I am not however able to pay that high of a monthly amount. They do require all the money up front which is WILD.

I'm scared. I'm losing teeth again. I'm eating soft foods or very cut up foods. I doubt I will ever be able to get implants but I've been hearing about this discount implant situation if you are missing more than five teeth. I def qualify.