Because of my illness and the fact I’m on Medicaid. Case in point: my dentist told me I needed a root canal and referred me to someone he knew. It would cost $1500 so I called up social services and they told me I qualify for Denti-cal. And they gave me the names of two dentists who take Medicaid for doing root canals.
The first one I called was totally unprofessional. Whoever answered the phone just goes “hello”? I said, “Is this the dentist?”
She answered yes but had no phone skills. It sounded like an old Vietnamese woman who was the cleaning lady or something. She didn’t offer one bit of information, she just answered yes and no. No politeness, no professionalism. I could have been talking to the drug store or something. I made an appointment though.
The other number was more like it. The young woman was polite and tried to help me and I made an appointment, which I just got back from. When I got there I filled out some forms and went in back and the girl took about ten x-rays. The x-rays were displayed on a smart TV about four feet in front of me. So far so good. But then the dentist came in.
It was some young woman with a thick accent that I had a hard time understanding. She looks at me, then she looks at the x-rays and then she tells me, “I can’t see which tooth it is, could you point it out?” I couldn’t believe it. She’s the damn dentist and she can’t read an x-ray and she’s asking me to read it! Then she got a little hammer and tapped all my teeth and asked which one hurt. I said my dentist said it was my upper, back tooth on the left. She studied the x-rays more but it took her about 5 minutes to figure out which tooth needed a root canal. And then she tells me that since there’s a crown on it, it’s too complicated for her, she only does simple root canals. Fair enough.
She said no dentist she knows will do it. So I will just have to pay the $1500 and get it done by a private dentist. But I can’t believe some of these dentists and doctors who take Medicaid.