I am trying too find out how to get a young man’s wisdom tooth removed.
He is 21 and comes from an absolutely horrible background. Parents are totally useless drug addicts and/or can’t be found. He’s a good kid who does alot of work for and with me when I can afford it (and a more than a few when I couldn’t offer more than a bologna sandwich). He has a wisdom tooth that is killing him with pain. He is taking 10-20 ibuprofen a day at this point (and I know this has been hurting him for many months).
I want to get his tooth pulled, but I can’t afford the $300 that is gonna cost in the closest town with dentist. He certainly can’t afford it as he currently lives on probably less than $400 per month in a cabin with no indoor plumbing.
I have googled, but can’t find anything other than general nationwide costs for the procedure.
Does anyone have any suggestions for how I could get this fixed? I could come up with $150 toward the procedure and I am totally willing to do that, but lower cost alternatives would be very helpful.
I am very worried that leaving this would not only be detrimental to his general health, but would also lead to painkiller abuse and a general downward trend in his quest to better himself.
I’d be willing to bet if you called up a dentist and explained the situation they’d let you break the payment into three chunks to be paid over three months. Maybe if you pay the first two he can pay the remaining payment. He’ll probably save the $100 over 3 months just in what he would have spent on Advil and he’ll stop tearing up his stomach…and as someone that had some nasty wisdom tooth pain, I can tell you the pain will be gone literally as soon as the tooth is out.
FTR, IIRC I paid $270 for one partially erupted tooth with a panoramic X-Ray.
ETA, he might need a dental consult first though. If the dentist doing the extraction doesn’t do that, it might be another $100 or so for the consultation. I’m not sure how that works. I have a regular dentist that referred me to an oral surgeon that pulled the tooth. I’m not sure if a ‘regular person’ can just call up an oral surgeon and ask for a tooth to be pulled.
Nearest Dental school…about 350 miles. Charities are mostly for kids under 18.
I can’t afford payments. Between the SO and I we live on about $1100 a month. I have $500 in savings after months and months and more months of trying to put back “something”. I would give up $150 to $200 of that to help the kid out.
I’ve also offered him a room in our house, no charge. He won’t go there, but he is in such pain that he is willing to “let” me help him with the tooth thing.
I’ve thought about calling every dentist within a range and “begging” for a break. I would never “beg” for myself, but I am perfectly willing and able to do it for someone else.
Like I said, good kid, lousy start…is fighting his hardest to, in his words “not be like my mom.”
He actually just obtained a state ID last week. Never had one because his mom never got him a SS#. That was a total clusterfuck in itself (whole 'nother thread there). Now, he can work on a DL.
I’ve read here that some Hospital ER’s pull teeth. But, I think it has to be infected before they’ll do anything. I’d imagine that’s the worst possible choice for dealing with a bad wisdom tooth. <shudder>
Can’t recall the thread but it was someone that did have that experience.
It’s probably going to be about $300 or so. You say that you’re willing to spend about $200 to help him out.
What I’m suggesting is that you find a dentist that’s willing to split it into three payments of $100 and see if your friend is willing to kick in $100 of his own.
If the dentist will split it into three payments, you don’t need to come up with $200 all at once and you’re friend can wait 2 months before he has to come up with the final $100.
I also recommend this. In my experience dentists are far more willing to cut deals and payment plans than other medical providers. Something I’ve done (at a vet, but I’ve heard of similar with dentists) is to hand over a set of post-dated checks in the payment amounts at the time of the procedure. This way the dentist has a bit more proof of your intent to pay and recourse against you if you don’t. Then you have a few months to come up with the money, from the patient or other means.
Are any of these Aspen Dental locations near you? http://www.aspendental.com/locations/search/washington
I used one near me a few years back for some extensive work, and they were very eager to get me signed up for a payment plan. They seem to cater to people with spotty dental treatment pasts and lower incomes. You might be able to get payments as low as $50/month on a $300 procedure. I was pretty satisfied with the care at my branch - the dentists seemed to mostly be recent graduates and immigrants getting established, and the place was pretty no-frills, but the care was professional and my crowns haven’t fallen out yet.
I suggest you just make an appointment, have the tooth taken care of, and talk to the dentist about payment afterwards.
I’m not talking about defrauding the dentist or anything of the sort. Once the tooth is done the dentist will likely be quite willing to accept some payment in trade; perhaps the kid can do some yard work, paint the office, or some such.
I found a dentist 55 miles from here that will help us out for $75 cash plus a cord of firewood! We cut a few extra cord this year, so that won’t be a hardship.
It took about 15 phone calls, but we have an appointment for tomorrow at 3 p.m.
The SO is going to drive the kid and firewood down there and unload while the tooth gets removed.
