I needed a tooth pulled so I printed out all the oral surgeons within 15 miles who take Medi-Cal. I had a list of about ten and called all of them and only one would take me as a new patient. This was back in April and they made me an appointment to get my tooth pulled on May 11th but I cancelled at the last minute and they couldn’t give me a new appointment until July 21st.
My regular dentist has been waiting since March for me to get my tooth pulled so he can put a bridge on the two adjacent teeth and cover where the tooth is pulled. I imagine they were a little upset that my appointment was far away on July 21st.
There’s a temporary bridge on three teeth and the middle one needs to be pulled and my dentist made a note in the referral to the oral surgeon to ‘section’ the temporary bridge which means slice through the temporary bridge to get to the tooth that needs to be pulled. I went in for my appointment today and I was dreading it because now dental work makes me gag and throw up. When I went inside the oral surgeons office there were three receptionists and they all told me they had no record of an appointment for me today but the doctor could see me at 12:00. It’s a 15 mile drive and then they botched my appointment but it was 11:30 and waiting until 12:00 wasn’t so bad.
I was escorted to the chair and met the oral surgeon. He saw the temporary bridge and told me he doesn’t have the right tools to slice it, that it would break into pieces and if it fell off and the adjacent teeth were exposed he might break them if he tried pulling the tooth. He told me to go back to my dentist and have them take the temporary bridge off and put a temporary crown on each of the adjacent teeth and then he could pull my tooth.
So I drove 15 miles and couldn’t get my tooth pulled but they made an appointment for me for the 30th. And I filled out all the paperwork for their office online 3 months ago but they had no record of that either so I had to sit there and fill out the same 4 forms again.
So I left and got gas and a couple of sodas, $68 to fill my tank; thanks Trump. And I drove to my regular dentist and told them this story and she said, “Well, we can slice the temporary bridge” and now I called the oral surgeon office to see if that’s alright and they told me to call back after 4:00. So I’m waiting to call and resting. Geez, what a frustrating day.