BS: Tips for geezers:

Subject: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 05:05 PM

admin
incorporate this if a similar thread exists.


Now that I'm looking at 60 I could use some spare parts.
Its time I cross that bridge of getting some bridgework for some teeth. Implants cost over $6000 a tooth around here so a bridge seems to be what I can afford.

I don't trust dentists for good reason. I have been overcharged 3 times. Once by double billing, once by having a procedure cost $18 dollars after insurance and the same procedure cost $400 after insurance. I also got ripped off in a dental kick back scheme.

Assuming I find an honest practitioner, what should I ask for and what should I expect?


hearing aid is next...

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 05:14 PM

(Aside: You appear to have a hard life, Donuel.)

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: artbrooks
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 05:37 PM

Medical tourism is big these days. There are a lot of US-trained dentists practicing in Mexico who will give you just about the same quality of work for about half (or less) the cost. Go to Puerta Valarta for a week, soak up some rays, and get your teeth fixed! More here from AARP.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 06:21 PM

The very thought of tooth implants gives me toothache. A good set of dentures to fill in for any teeth that aren't there or shouln't be there is the way to go, I reckon.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: ClaireBear
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 06:32 PM

A good partial plate costs a lot less than a bridge and is, I think, easier to maintain and easier on the remaining teeth as well (because they have to be excavated to support a bridge, but not a partial plate).

However you do have to get past the idea of taking some of your teeth out at night and seeing your suddenly misshapen face look even older.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 07:23 PM

Do Partial Plates touch the roof of the mouth?   eww


Dental tourism is also a cool idea I had not considered before.
Implants would probably require 3 seperate vacations. Removal...implant...crown. Doing it all at once is not an option in the US, and probably for good reason.

I overheard an old lady in the next door dental chair talking about the $32,000 dental bill she ran up at that office alone.

Dentists can charge as they want. It is pretty much unregulated.




Ebbie, perhaps I just enjoy complaining more than most. Silent stoicism has little meaning for me.
If you get old enough you will dent a fender or two. I suppose if I add all the mishaps together they do sound imposing.
It seems people want artists to suffer. It would be a shame to waste great suffering in a career like accounting. Life is what happens despite the plans we make.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 09:26 PM

LOL Ebbie. When you and I are old enough, we will understand. Therein lies the rub. Neither one of us will ever be as old or disillusioned as D. was at 20. Doesn't matter what fate has sent our way. We will never be old. My dentist and doctors and neighbors and and and are all good people. Maybe when I am older I will see their evil ways...but I doubt it.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: CarolC
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 10:34 PM

I have a great dentist who is extremely honest. And he gives me a discount, too (we have some discount dental plan that makes that possible). I highly recommend him. Seeing him would involve some dental tourism though, since he's in southeastern North Carolina, but at least the beach is nearby to make it worthwhile.

One thing I really like about him is that he doesn't look for ways to try to get me to spend more money than I have on dental work, and he'll work really hard to find the least expensive solutions to problems. I have found that to be a rare quality among dentists (I've been ripped off by a few, also).

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 11:52 AM

An innocent, naive kid am I. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: jeffp
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 12:06 PM

You might check out Dental One in Columbia. Prices are decent and I was treated very well. A full set of snap-in dentures, from extraction of all remaining teeth through temporary dentures to 8 titanium implants to the final dentures cost $26,000. Most of that was the implants and the final dentures. It took about 14 months beginning to end and I'm loving them! I can eat foods I haven't been able to chew for years. The Endodontist (who does most of the work) is Dr. Mazer. I highly recommend him.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 12:19 PM

So, the guy's been living in Japan for a while, and he really, really likes Japanese food - except that it gives him terrible farts, and they go like this: Honda! Hhhhhonda! He's been to internists, and herbalists, and acupuncturists, and nothing has helped, till one day somebody tells him he should see a dentist. At his wits' end, he does, and as soon as he tells his trouble, the dentist smiles widely and says, Ah (and this has to be done in a fake oriental accent, sorry), so, I know problem, you have tooth abscess. What, says the guy, how does that affect my digestion? Ah, so, says the dentist, abscess make the fart go Honda!

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 06:03 PM

Funny how different things worry us. Donuel can't take the idea of dentures that touch the roof of the mouth, I feel faint at the ideas of implants (as for "titanium implants", I'd feel like a Borg...)

I knew a man who had a real terror of green peas on a plate.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: maire-aine
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 07:25 PM

If you have a dental school nearby, you might inquire there. Here's the website for the Univ-Detroit dental school program.

Subject: RE: BS: Tips for geezers:
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 08:53 AM

Or perhaps PM Jimmyt in Georgia - Dentistry is his Racket !