I know the rules: There are no doctors on this board, I’m not asking for medical opinion, just asking for laymen’s opinions on how to approach this.
About 15 months ago, during a dentist appt., the dentist looked at my x-rays and said “Wow, this blastoma is growing as we speak!” It was the kind of office where the dentist works on multiple patients at once, so that was all he said on the matter before popping off and having the assistant clean up the mess that happens when one has had several teeth removed. So, it was a very fast visit, and I wasn’t in any condition to ask questions, anyway.
Fast forward to the time when I remember what he said and think to myself, Self, what’s a blastoma, exactly? Google’s been…frighteningly helpful. :eek:
My question is simply this: Do I go to my regular doctor and tell him about this, and go from there, or is something to continue with at the dentist’s? Don’t need answer fast, as I just got laid off and am between insurances. But…yeah. Where to start when insurance kicks back in again in April?
Thanks
Also, I guess, an insurance question: Might insurance decline to cover a blastoma as, I suppose, it’s technically a previous condition? I don’t know how to approach a doc and convince him, without the x-ray speed analysis, that I think something is wrong and I know a good place to start would be right HERE <points at upper jaw> But if I bring up the reasons for my concerns, can insurance refuse to cover? I mean, technically. A fish out of water about this kind of thing. >.< Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Was the dentist looking at someone else’s X ray when he made this comment!?? Did he ask you what kind of treatment you are receiving or anything about your condition? It seems like you may have over heard a comment that wasn’t directed at you. He may have said some other term that you are remembering as blastoma.
A dentist making this comment would already know that the patient had been diagnosed by their doctor. He isn’t just going to see a glioblastoma on a dental x ray and make a flip comment like that.
You do not have a glioblastoma, the most common type of brain cancer and usually swiftly fatal. He made this comment 15 months ago and if you had one you should have been dead about 9 months ago. You certainly couldn’t be operating a computer today.
If you feel fine I think you are worrying about some mis-heard comment that has nothing to do with you. And the time to ask about it was 15 months ago when you were still alive.
If you still believe he was looking at your xray that would be the place to start, get your xrays from the dentist and show them to a doctor. Cheaper than getting new x-rays.
There is no such tumor as a blastoma; that’s a suffix that occurs in the name of a dozen or more vastly different diseases. Given that you heard a dentist using that phrase, the relevant tumor would be an ameloblastoma. I think if you Google that name, you’ll be less alarmed.
Now go talk with your dentist and find out exactly what he was saying 15 months ago. As others have already pointed out, he may not have even been referring to you.
Can’t help with the insurance questions, unfortunately. But if you DO have an ameloblastoma, you’re eventually going to want to have it removed.
