Dental Care on the road

Hi 883, well, I'm not sure how old you are, but when you're pushing 60, like me, these are problems that have accumulated over a lifetime. I was a total candy freak(still am)and while I trucked, I always had a bushel basket of jelly beans with me. Another thing, people that have ins. are so out of touch when it comes to health care costs. I'm not rippin' on you, obviously you have ins., and that's great, but when it comes to either buying tires for the rig or getting your teeth cleaned, guess what wins. And I'm not so sure I buy the stroke/plaque thing. While I know bad teeth can cause other problems, there are so many other factors that come into play with strokes and heart disease, I figure it's a ploy from the dentists to get you in there, after all, it is a business, like anything else(now watch, tomorrow I'll have a stroke). OH, OH, somebody thank me quick, I see I've been thanked 666 times, got to get that off of there, HELP

 

Negligence is one of the main reasons people suffer from oral problems. I too had similar experience, as I was feeling discomfort in my tooth and ignored it till it started hurting bad. Visited the dentist Redondo Beach, and they informed me that I’d have to undergo root canal procedure. Though I was nervous, the professionals there conducted the procedure conveniently.

 

That's it? They had me on 60mg x4 Demerol for two weeks after bone surgery, tooth removal under versed and IV lights out and removal of a sinus abscess working it's way towards some really important parts of the brain.

Let's say it's two weeks of life I will not get back. But there was no problem. Excepting that 3000 dollar bill. Two insurances took care of it.

As of Jan 1 pain killers are provided you spend 7 times the half life of the last dose without taking any. Then you can touch a big truck and go. For me with that surgery situation it would have been about 10 days so theoretically I would have been off the road about a month in total.

In our state, hydrocodone; ie viacodin at 10mg x3 daily is about 30 to 40 MME (Morphine Milligram Equivalent.) The State has banned any prescribing over 50 MME without a specific documentation explaining such higher doses from doctor. In addition they have limited to a hard limit of 80 MME daily for those who are non cancer and non hospice.

In addition they only prescribe something like 3 days, 7 days max for a process and large chain pharmacies will not fill beyond that.

I did not touch a dentist in decades out there, in my time we had a old school dentist with nothing except a big needle now and then and alot of muscle. These days you can pretty much pull in and bobtail to any dentist office and get yourself fixed. A word of warning, it's expensive. Mine bills almost 200 for gas and cleaning, xrays etc. It's not that great but they get it taken care of.

Just remember to ask them how long gas stays in your body and then wait 7 times that amount of time. (Not that long.)