So I been losing my mind for the last week from two massive cavities. I have dental insurance but they would only cover like 1000 and for both root canals I would need at least 5k. I already have two jobs and am barely scraping by as is. I've tried every trick to help the pain with it only working for a few minutes. I've had a massive phobia of the dentist my whole life but these cavities have been building over the last 5 years and now I'm close to just ripping my teeth out to help the pain or start stripping on the internet to make money for it. I already got orajel but apparently I'm not supposed to use it for more than a week so thats another temporary relief. I just really need advice on options
Thank you in advance
I'm about to pull my teeth out from the pain whats an affordable way to get a root canal
byu/Informal_Expert_2119 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Informal_Expert_2119
21 Comments
See if you have a medical college around for dentistry or even if you have to drive a bit. It can be done for a fraction of the cost and you won’t even need insurance involved in some cases.
Go to a dental school’s urgent care, at my school a root canal is about $900
How far are you from Mexico?
How far are you from the southern border? Mexico has good and affordable dentists.
go to a dental school. they often do discounted work.
You can at least go to dentist and get a script of antibiotics. That should buy you some time.
If you dont need the teeth, just pull them.
Reach out to dentistry schools. It’ll be much cheaper and possibly free. The downside is that the person performing the procedure will have little to no experience doing root canals but they will be assisted by someone with a lot of experience.
Just have it extracted which is way cheaper. like 150 to 300 per tooth
How far are you from Mexico? Border towns tend to have a lot of dental offices that cater to medical tourists and cost a fraction of what the same procedures would cost in the US.
Definitely just get an extraction. It is cheaper. Also, you may want to see if you qualify for care credit. I had to put 5k of dental work on that. It is a credit line just for medical expenses.
Dentist phobias are truly tragic, because you end up avoiding them for 5 years, like you did, and then tooth decay becomes so bad that you need root canals.
I’m sure your insurance would have covered yearly cleanings for free. In the future, please use those benefits.
Buy a product called Gly-oxide. It’s not marketed for pain relief, but it will hug the tooth and go down below the gumline bringing oxygen which KILLS the bacteria causing you pain. I know from experience of many years.
Edited to add: this is to get you relief now, not to replace actual dental work!
dental college. Thats what I did.
Try using peppermint oil for pain relief. It is also naturally anti bacterial, so it can help with infections. Make sure to squeeze on those swollen pockets and spit it out, rinse with room temp salt water (bring to boil, stir, let it cool to room temp).
It isn’t an answer to your question, but it will help with the pain.
There are better suggestions already, but if desperate you could always pull it.
Don’t fuck with your teeth.
Story time: A coworker of mine had a phobia of dentists, like yourself. She had cavities that she let go, and one eventually turned into an abscess that was incredibly painful. She finally went to get it pulled and thought the whole ordeal was over. Then, she started having trouble breathing a few weeks later. It turns out the had aspirated the bacteria from the abscess into her lungs causing an infection. She tried antibiotics, but none worked for this type of infection. She ended up getting a lobe of her lung removed.
Don’t fuck with your teeth. Take care of it. Go to a dental school or take on the debt if you have to. I guarantee the lung surgery cost a lot more than that.
Try taking one advil and one Tylenol together. I had root canal pain years ago and my endodontist turned me onto this hack. You can relieve pain for about 12 hours this way. Not sure how many days you can do this, but this at least allows you to think clearly while making decisions. Hang in there.
you can go to the dental hospital where itll be done cheap but they will offer extraction, if you want to keep the tooth they refer you back to your dentist for phase 2 which will still be costly.
https://www.dentalhospital.ie/patient-information/emergency-services#:~:text=As%20our%20Accident%20and%20Emergency,this%20service%20is%20walk%2Din.
as someone else said in here.. I think you should take care of your teeth and get the root canal. missing teeth with absolutely fuck the alignment of your other teeth if you let it sit with a gap too long.
Yeah maybe going to dental school is the cheaper option but whatever option you choose, you need to pick the one that is for the best of your health. Even if you need to take out a small tiny loan.
Take it as a life lesson to take care of your teeth. good dental hygiene literally will make you live longer.
less sugars. more water. brush your teeth at minimum twice a day. better after meals. and brush for 7-8 solid minutes. get a water pick if u dont like flossing. always brush before bed.
Be aware that your dental insurance is very normal. Going forward don’t let it be your excuse because it rarely gets any better. If you have access to a HSA, that can be a good way to save for these costs.
Insurance in this realm doesn’t really work the same way it does for medical because almost everyone needs dental work. There’s no pool of people paying in but not using the service.