Huzzah! Good call people! I just booked my dentist appointment that I keep forgetting about Love you all loads.

Yeah that possibility would be awesome for many.

Well -I must say with having my dogs go in for their teeth cleanings yesterday and this forum topic, I finally broke down and made an appointment. At least where I decided to go I can get sedation dentistry.

Sedation? For a check-up? Or in case they have to pull / drill something?

Well - they will use the sedation for anything if needed, but I think it is mostly used in cases of anxiety for coming in for like fillings and such. Which that does freak me out. I had one REALLY bad experience getting teeth pulled as a child. So when I had my wisdom teeth removed (they were impacted anyway) I had them surgically removed, so I was out the entire time with IV Valume. (no idea how to spell valume, so I'll go with it cause it's to early at work tocare yet.)

I thought most young people like us were lucky enough not to have lived through the butcher-times of the dentist trade, with proper sedation and emergency fillings (as opposed to pulling teeth as they used to for every problem). But I guess some of us still got the unlucky end of the stick, like you Shiny. Always possible to get complications.

Last time I was at the dentist's I asked him if he really got a lot of terrified people in there. like, so terrified they start freaking out. He said it barely ever occured (anymore).

In my opinion, dentistry and even our medical profession is still mostly barbaric. We remove teeth... we drill out holes and fill them with inert compounds. We replace teeth with artificial ones. To me, that's all still pretty barbaric and not far from what we were doing 800 years ago.

To me, it won't be modern until we can regrow teeth and make stuff just as good as it was before. I'm hopeful that we'll get there some time in the next 10 years or so.

Nah man they tried pulling 5 teeth with only gas and the deadening shot. I was only like 7-8 years old. They were trying to make room in my mouth for me to start with the process of widening my mouth so they could put braces on. I was pretty damn buck toothed as a child. I was crying so bad, that the dentists white coat was far from white when I got out of there. They should never have done that with a child so young.

Then, even when I had the 4 wisdom teeth surgically removed, I was one of the unlucky ones that got dry socket. Which is when the clot does not stay, which causes pain like you can not even imagine. The fix? They pack the hole fresh after surgery with gauze that has an ointment on it. I was I think about 18 when I did that. I almost passed out from the pain in the office when they put that gauze in my fresh cut flesh. Granted after they did that it helped the pain, but OMG!

So, yea, I don't like going to the dentist. I went through about 8 years of orthodontics too. That would cause pain like every month for 8 years! Seriously not cool. Don't get me wrong I am glad to not have all jacked up teeth, and I am thankful my parents paid for my braces etc., but it was a rough ride.

Sounds like something of a nightmare yeah Shiny. My brothers used to have really bad teeth position/pressure too, wore bracers when they were younger. I always made fun of them.

Just curious, how much does a dentist's visit cost you guys? Over here you get about 85% back from the state of any non-cosmetic dentist costs. It takes a day or 4 to recuperate the money but hey...I'm not complaining. Much.

Due to dental insurance that comes with our jobs, the twice-yearly visits for cleaning are free. We just go in, get it done and leave. If you have other stuff going on, there may be a charge depending on what it is. Filling a cavity I think gets covered under the dental plan typically. Getting like a root canal would cost more. Getting prescription usually requires a co-pay of some amount between $15 - $50 depending on the med and whether or not it's approved by the insurance provider and whether you use the name brand or a generic alternative.

Insurance gets pretty complicated pretty quick.

But - that is also with insurance. For those who do not have insurance, I believe at most places the visit cost about $85-100.00 for a cleaning. So, for me the cost of the insurance through my employer was worth it for that alone. I think I pay maybe $5.00 a month for my dental insurance. Granted my company has to pay for some of the cost of the insurance so they probably pay about $5-10 a month for my insurance.

K, thanks for the info. That sounds about the same as here price-wise, with the difference that dental care falls under general social security here and not a seperate (private) insurance.

As long as you're a member of one of the 4-5 big social security system 'pillars' (they're historically seperated by ideology, there is a christian one, a socialist one, liberal - etc. Not that it matters much anymore these days) you get a part or even the entire sum for a doctor's visit, medication, dental care etc. back. The amount of money you get back depends on your financial status and health...but even the well-to-do and healthy get back up to 80/90% of most expenses.

It works pretty much the same as a private insurance, with the difference that it's dirt cheap (30€ a year? I forget) and obligatory. It also covers basic hospital stay and surgery iirc. Esthetic surgery is on your own expense, except if you're deformed or something. Burn wounds, breast prothesis etc all falls under 'essential' esthetic surgery so you can get that back too. Just not purely cosmetic stuff.

Then again, I have a niece who has/had a pretty huge chin. Like, Jay Leno huge. And she got surgery for that and got back part of it, I think. It wasn't like the chin was doing her any favors, but she wasn't a fugly freakshow or anything.

Of course, I do have other insurance apart from basic health care, like a hospitalization insurance which for example can get me stuff like my own room at the hospital instead of having to share one, and to keep my income when I've been in the hospital for so long that my employer doesn't need to pay me wages anymore, etc. That set me back 200 € for a year.

Private insurance is a bitch

shit...cry me a river buddy. You paid 230 euros for a year of basically full insurance? Tha's like, what, $300 or so? I pay $100 every month for my insurance. It's a freakin' rip. But still less expensive than not being insured. Our health system is broken.

Heh - mine works out to I pay $300.00 a month for dental, medical, and vision insurance. Then, when I go to the doctor I have to pay between $30-50.00 for the office visit. Then if they prescribe something that cost too, which tends to be about $10-$50.00 for each prescription. I pay pretty much full for my contact lenses. If I have to have surgery, have a kid or something the requires a hospital visit, I then have to come up with a $750.00 deductible before they will even see me.

Imagine if I didn't have the insurance what it would cost. Andy keep in mind my $300.00 a month in medical insurance, etc. is also paid some by my employer. So, no telling how much they pay a month for my insurance, too.

There are times I think it would be cheaper just to pay without insurance, but unfortunately I get sick a lot

Jesus H Christ

Well, that should stop me from complaining about my medical bills from now on I guess I mean, I know that you guys make more nett wages than a European doing the same work, but still. It can't possibly be that big a difference to justify THAT kind of insurance money, right? Not to mention the lack of holidays.

The fact that you have to pay to have a baby is bizarre to me, btw. You get money for having a child here - 1000€ or so for your firstborn, and 300-400€ for every other child. It's probably higher by now.

Is there a pregnancy leave program in the US? Ie, is it just leave without pay or is there some sort of program where the woman can stay at home and recover and so on?