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#437609 07/23/08 04:48 AM
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I appreciated the tips in:

Your Child's First Dental Visit, at
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Pamela Wilson - Children with Special Needs Editor
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Thanks for starting that thread for me, Pam! I hadn't made it back here to do it yet! I actually drive an hour for my child's pediatrician, as the health care in our area is pretty dismal. It can be inconvenient sometimes, and we have a local "sick doctor," but totally worth it, and we can reimburse car use from our HSA account, so at least it's tax-free!

I wanted to go back to my old dentist, about the same distance (from before we moved about 50 miles), but unlike the pediatrician we opted to find someone local. It wasn't that it wasn't "worth it," but for some reason, it didn't seem to have the same "urgency" of the pediatric visits, and we ended up not doing them as often as we should for us, and had put off starting my daughter's for far too long.

The dentist is such an easy thing to put off, that I think that has to be taken into account when deciding how far to go. Sometimes to make yourself go, it just has to be as simple as possible. Our new one is within walking distance of our house!

Nicki :-)


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For anything serious we drive two hours to a pediatrician as well as our children's pediatric dentist. We tried a local dentist for our oldest daughter and as luck would have it, she needed a crown due to enamel problems. The dentist apparently knew nothing about dealing with kids (although he represented himself as being just as comfortable working with children as adults and we knew him to be an excellent with grownups)or at least our kid.

The procedure took longer than expected, our daughter got worn out and fussy and the dentist didn't deal with it very well. The ordeal didn't exactly leave her with a pleasant memory.

We started our next daughter much earlier with visits to a pediatric dentist two hours away with much better luck. We give her attitude credit for paving the way for our older girl to regain trust in dental care. The fact that the little one left the chair with a happy smile on her face convinced her older sister to hop in the chair for a checkup without a meltdown.

What I wouldn't give to have good pediatric and dental care for the kids within walking distance.

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Originally Posted By: msbaby
What I wouldn't give to have good pediatric and dental care for the kids within walking distance.


Yes, that is nice.. however, the flip side of it that there is no one anywhere near us (or anywhere far from us either that we are aware of) that is on an HMO plan. My husband's employer does not have Delta (grrrrr...) because they are too cheap to take on any potential pay-in if there were a lot of high expenses in a particular year. So they offer guardian, which is a joke. We declined it, and for a year self paid California Dental Network. That was a joke too. So now we have no dental insurance, and my husband and daughter going for that visit cost nearly $600!!! So for next year we might accept the dental PPO at my husband's work, which we always felt was insane, but may be reasonable compared to paying cash...and then we are covered in case there is something beyond the regular cleanings, etc. too.

It's frustrating.... but the HMO dentists seem really just to b insurance farms. You can't even get them to actually sit there and clean your teeth. They just want to do the xrays (every visit!! my old dentists only did them every 2 years!), since that's the high-profit item, and get you in and out as quickly as possible. Ugh... I had to make the dentist come back and scrape my teeth because I could still feel the tartar after he poked at like three of them.

Nicki


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Wow, I would protest big time about the frequency of those x-rays. Radiation is not our friend. I hate the thought of it when it's necessary much less when there's no reason for the exposure! Where are the medical professionals with ethics?

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Yeah.... we let the insurance company know, complained to the location about that and other problems, and basically protested by pulling our business. But they aren't exactly suffering for business. These dental HMOs pretty much have users over a barrel..and they are paying so little that any reputable dentist isn't on the plan. So I imagine they need to make up the difference with high volume and low service. Nice...

Nicki


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Ouch.

We went to a GREAT kids dentist when we were qualified for Soonercare (my husband's raise bumped us over the limit again - happens every time he gets a raise. *laughing*). I mean - FANTASTIC!

The masks they wore had animal faces. They had flat TV's hung above the tables that played cartoons for the kids to watch. They carefully explained everything to the kids. My son was 2 and needed to go back for a cap because his teeth, like mine, are very ridged. She recommended sedation but I knew that Evan would be ok without and I didn't want him having the meds unless he NEEDED it. The dentist was willing to try the procedure without full sedation first and use it only as a last-resort if needed.

So then she pulled me aside and showed me how to "practice" with Evan at home so he would know what to expect and would be more likely to get through the procedure without needing the sedation. It worked! They went SO quickly and worked so efficiently that they were finished very quickly and even my active 2.5 year old didn't have time to get antsy.

I don't know what we're going to do now that we would have to pay the 20%. There is a dentist here in town that just did my husband's teeth and the co-pay was only $30 and his insurance picked up the rest. I might take Evan there this year to see how they are with kids before taking Brianna since it will be her first time ever.

Angela <><


Angela England

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