Hi,
I am reaching out for some support. I am 47 yrs old and have pretty bad anxiety. Most days its a struggle to leave my house to go to the store. Most days I dissociate from how bad the anxiety is being away from home and feeling safe. Anxiety pretty much has dominated my life these past 20 yrs - taking everything away from me. I have no friends or family as a result and live in utter isolation for the past decade. Most of the anxiety I have is related to trauma I went through as a child. I sought out help and the trauma was pretty much ignored as many providers in mental health are not trained properly to treat complex trauma. I am deemed disabled and the insurance I have Medicare doesn't have enough providers making finding help like looking for a needle in a haystack. Not to mention the copays were to expensive. I went the pysch doctor route as it was more affordable and something I could do 4x a yr vs a therapist weekly. Medication to me was evilness. This is leading into the title of the thread....The meds I took caused me to grind my teeth. I would tell the pysch doc and would be switched to another med and same thing would happen again.This went on for a few yrs and I wound up losing all my teeth at the age of 37. The cost to repair my teeth was 30k. Something a disabled person can not afford. My insurance medicare pays no dental. I found a charity and they couldn't do the restorative work to my teeth they pulled them all was more cost effective. They had me lined up with a place to get dentures but unfortunately they lost their funding so no dentures that was in 2007. I tried to get medicaid but my disability check was high by a few dollars and I was denied. A decade of pain and suffering without teeth...The ridicule from people. The shame etc I have endured has been overwhelming and has increased my social anxiety. Not to mention the physical aspect of the absence of teeth caused bone loss and my jaw to shift badly. In 2015 I tried on my own to get dentures where I live locally and they couldn't make a denture - my jaw needs to be broken and I need bone grafting to rebuild my gums that have disappeared. Keep in mind it took me 8 yrs at that point to save $1000 for the dentures and was told the cost was over now 60k . Finally in 2017 I get medicaid and I could hopefully get the dental work I need???
Fast forwarding through I have an appt tomorrow to see a prosthodontist. The place I have to go to is 3 hrs away and is the only medicaid prosthodonist in the state. I have no car but medicaid does provide transportation. This is where I am scared. The comp medicaid uses are notorious for stranding people (based on some people I know and reading some online reviews and my personal experience) I am terrified if they left me there. I have reached out to ask since the ride is 3 hrs away will the driver be staying with me they said they didn't know. I reached out to the case manager to see if she could find out but she couldn't be bothered - yet she said she understood my anxiety...whatever!!! All I want is reassurance that the driver will be staying and I don't go full blown panic if he is not there. Part of me is saying cancel the appt...the other part of me will be really pissed off if the anxiety wins again...this has been my only chance at dental in a decade...so much is on the line...i dont know what to do. :( sorry so long
Reply With Quote
