Fun with Community Care

[Vync]

Had some fun this week regarding being referred out via community care for some dental treatment. Please note that I am SC for a dental issue plus am also 100% P&T so I am covered. I also have received approval for dental care in the community.

My treatment required the VA to approve separate visits for a root canal, a crown, plus nitrous oxide use. For unknown reasons, it took about six weeks to get the root canal approved w/gas. I went to that appointment this week and it was pretty humorous. After they turned on the nitrous and I was feeling almost nothing, Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb came on the radio. I was waiting on some Jimi Hendrix, but wasn't that lucky...

[Dustoff1970]

The VA dental farmed out my root canal to a private dentist and I refused to sign their form saying I would be responsible for payment of dental treatment because the VA was paying the tab. 

The dental surgeon then caused me extra pain during the procedure by not giving me enough numbing medicine in the many shots he gave me.  I complained loudly about him at the VA dental clinic and he is no longer on contract with VA dental. I wish him and his whole family burn in hell after resting with the worms for a while.

American greed is o so lovely

Edited April 15, 2022 by Dustoff 11

[john999]

Dusty

 

I went to one of those private dentist the VA referred me to see.  It was a disaster.  The dentist had her assistant doing the work she should have done.  They screwed it up so bad I got out of the chair and left.  I don't trust VA dentist one bit.  They pulled the wrong tooth one time.  Their attitude seemed to be "oh you will never miss that tooth so let's just pull it."  I will pay up for the real dentist next time.

 

        

[Vync]

I used to get very good treatment from the VAMC dental clinic until I presented with a painful tooth had their dentist said there was nothing wrong with it. I paid out of my pocket for a non-VA dentist second opinion who said the VA dentist should not be practicing dentistry because they missed the obvious infection. I got antibiotic treatment and a root canal resolved it. Funny part was I went back to the VA and they installed a crown. Oddly enough, the same VA dentist eventually was made chief of the clinic for a couple of years, but thankfully has since moved on.

Lately, VAMC dental service has been less than stellar. I honestly get much better dental treatment via community care than I ever did at the VA, but asking the VA to pay means delay. For example, I had a filling fall out and the VA dental clinic kept calling to reschedule saying they were shorthanded. That went on for about a year until the adjacent filling also fell out.  Additionally, the VA refuses to use gas for anything except oral surgery.

[deedub75]

I had never used the VAMC dental clinic before because I had not heard good things about it. About 4 years ago, I had a filling come out and I had a little pain with the tooth. This tooth had had fillings done multiple times and the last time I was told I would eventually need a root canal done. I went to one of those same day dental clinics to get it checked out and they said I needed to have the root canal done. I have commercial dental insurance as well. When they ran my dental insurance and told me how much the root canal would cost, I decided that the VAMC dental clinic was right for me. 

I called the clinic and told them I was in pain and they told me to come on in and they would squeeze me in. They examined me and agreed that I needed the root canal but they could not get me in soon enough to get it done. The referred me to an outside dentist that only did root canals and that dentist called me the same day and told me that had an afternoon opening so I went and got it done that day. Unfortunately, I had to go back to the VAMC dental clinic to get the crown. They had me come in for a temporary crown but the outside dentist had already put one on. It takes way too many visits to get a crown. 

[Vync]

@deedub75You have a good community care team at your VAMC. I also had a crown done via community care last year and they had technology the VAMC clinic lacked. Only took them a couple of visits. Got approval to visit the same non-VA dental clinic for the crown and they also handle my cleanings, too.