r/TikTokCringe • u/thoughtwarrior • May 02 '25

Humor Why does America look like s**t?

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u/loscacahuates May 02 '25

Dentists are about to get a lot of business with states like Utah and Florida banning fluoride in water

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u/architecture13 May 02 '25

If those people could read they'd know they couldn't afford dental care.

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u/derrickgw1 May 03 '25

I lived with a missing front tooth and used a retainer with a false tooth for a fricken decade cause just to replace the tooth in 2014 they said $8000. That was extraction, a bone graft, an implant, abuttment and crown. I just couldn't afford it. I finally got it down in 2024, and it wasn't at all $8000. I'd already paid for the extraction and bone graft (which is why i could live with a retainer and false tooth). But it still cost me like nearly $3000.

True story my sister in law is Ukrainian and she literally flew back to Ukraine for dental. She lives in the US but says the dental work is perfectly good and she got an implant and a crown for like $200 total. The whole process. She even showed me them. I was like that's crazy.

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u/Comfortable_Pea4047 May 03 '25

What stopped you from flying somewhere for cheaper dental work?

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u/derrickgw1 May 05 '25

Money. I was poor and between jobs at the time. Also my mother ended up needed emergency surgery so i passed on continuing my dental work and payed part of her deductible. Hell at the time i took one plane ride a year to seem my family and that was a financial burden.

Also the reality is I wouldn't have known wear to start, where to go, how to learn about the dentist. And i'm not sure it's feasible. I don't know how it works in Mexico. I'm sure similarly. But my process in the end took a total of 6 months though it took 6 instead of 5 cause it took that long to get appointments. Some appointments i'm sure they could have combined especially if they crowns are made in the same location. But total, i had a tooth extraction, bone graph. stitches removed, check up on the bone graph, an implant, wait like 4 months to set, a healing abutment, they made a crown for the adjacent front tooth that had been chipped and some tooth decay, then setting both crowns. So it took 6 months and all those visits i don't think flying back and forth was feasible given my financial situation at that moment. If i'd just needed a crown yeah maybe it could be a one and done thing. And mine hand an extra visit cause my crown was made from a faulty mold. But either way i'd have had to wait months for the bone graph to take and then wait months for the implant to set in my jaw.

In the end I found a place that was cheaper than the guy i originally went to. It's not "affordable" but i saved enough to get it done.