Free stuff (like healthcare)Follow

Only very recently have I had to start paying for medical treatments. I'm a recently graduated 21 yr old - a year ago as a full time student aged 20 I paid for nada.

For about 9 years I didn't brush my teeth or look after them at all. This summer, in the middle of my finals in fact, it caught up with me and I started having terrible tooth pain and treatment.

First off: £400 for an emergancy part 1 root canal at a private dentist who saw me the next day. I could have gone for free to a hospital and waited but my mum was happy to pay up and given that it affected my exams, we just wanted it done with minimal hassle.

Since then I've been in pretty much every week to my local NHS dentist. Crowns, root canals, hygeinist check ups, fillings, the whole shebang. They charge a maximum of £200 a month for everything. So, for example, I could have 5 appointments in that time doing any type of work and I'd pay £200. I have paid £200. Oh, but I'm getting it back, because I've recently made the giddy transition from student to jobseeker and jobseekers don't pay for dental treatment. So I'm going to the jobcentre with the receipts from the practice.

I'm also going to pick up my backdated £50 pw that all jobseekers get, and see about having at least a month or two of my £450 / month rent covered by housing benefit, because jobseekers get help paying their rent if they can't cover it themselves.

That's all. :)

Yeah, but the important point is the decadent European healthcare system has made it all better, rewarding me for my lack of self respect!

I feel gross if I don't brush my teeth at least twice a day :-/ Flossing is my bane; I do it for like a week, just get over the bleeding gums stage, then forget for a month and start all over again. Ick! Fun fact: if your gums bleed because of flossing, you don't do it enough. Your gums get infected by all the crap in your mouth and inflamed; and only inflamed gums will bleed. Well, unless you're flossing with a vengeance and trying to draw blood.

The use of the British pound symbol and an admission of having bad teeth. Why am I not surprised?

Totem

True story:
My wife and I on our trip through Europe a couple of months ago were visiting the Ryks Museum in Amsterdam. Behind us were an English couple who, upon introducing ourselves, proceeded to regale us about life in merry olde england. Immediately, the husband made a joke (which was lost on us, prolly due to cultural differences) which exposed his chompers in a braying laugh. It was utterly startling to see these yellow masticators which to my eyes appeared to be Mr. Ed's on a bad day.

His wife then smiled broadly at her husband's fun-nay, whereupon she exposed her front teeth, one of which was gray! My goodness, it took every ounce of concentration not to stare.

Having the stereotype bourne out in such a manner was as shocking as it must have been for NaughtyWord to truly discover Chinese men truly do have small d1cks. Imagine!

Totem

Edited, Jul 24th 2009 9:48am by Totem

I was applying pressure with gauze that the triage nurse kindly provided, which replaced the sweater I had been using. I have clotting issues unrelated to my mental and emotional development. I doubt the doctors had much time to laugh, though, with the multiple-car accident, the man who'd managed to sever his leg with some piece of construction equipment, the woman who'd been stabbed, and the kid who showed up with bleach and bits of glass in his eye.

I use floss picks and floss while commuting to work (it's a one-handed deal with the floss picks).

No, my point was that it had nothing to do with government-run healthcare. Such delays are typical here in the good old pay-as-you-go USA.

Yes. ARC First Aid teaches direct pressure with a clean dressing for bleeding wounds. Elevation if possible - and make sure you use Universal Precautions (specially with Mindel).

Varus, you could probably just let your dogs lick your wounds clean.







Edited, Jul 24th 2009 4:35pm by Elinda

It's my own fault, really. I obtained my vWF via Affirmative Action.

In US: You call every dentist within reasonable driving distance, then every dentist within unreasonable driving distance. This proves pointless, because they don't work weekends, and if they did, they'd be booked anyway. You get an appointment for next Wednesday, swallow a bottle of advil, and pray for death. Saturday morning you realize you cannot bear it a moment longer, make your way to an ER or Urgent Care clinic where, after sitting in a cramped, cold waiting room amongst a veritable menagerie of human decay and disease, you're seen by doctor who can't fix your ******* teeth anyway but gives you a script for vicodin. You fill it, go home, and crawl in to a narcotic coma. Tuesday morning you call 911 because you can't feel your face. You're rushed to the hospital where it's discovered you have a massive abscess which has burst in to your brain. You die and your next of kin receives a stack of medical bills likely totaling more than your average annual salary.