I have pretty good teeth, never had a cavity, haven't needed any work done, other than cosmetic reasons I don't need braces or anything. I don't even have wisdom teeth to bother me. Mister M doesn't have my teeth.
We went in December for a regular cleaning, checkup appointment, I knew he had one cavity because I could see it. They did x-rays and found four... four whole cavities. He was so upset, he brushes his teeth at least twice a day, and I help him at night to make sure he gets it clean. We'll even do the oreo test... eat an oreo and about 5 minutes later brush and if theres any black stuff left in the teeth you're not brusing right. The dentist said that he has unusually deep molars and thats what's causing the issue. So we needed to get fillings.
I live in Ontario Canada, we have OHIP (ontario health insurance program) but it doesn't cover dental work. I don't have coverage through work or school so I need to pay out of pocket for anything. I paid $78.00 for the appointment and x-rays alone, they told me that the four fillings would cost me a grand total of $530.00. I don't have that kind of money just kicking around. I would have had to dip into my get a car fund, and into my household budget for the next couple of months to cover it. I've seen adds on the subway and at the Dr's office for emergency dental care for youths 17 and under so I figured I'd check it out. Went to the health units web-site and found the contact information for the dental assistance and made an appointment. When I got there Ann the wonderful worker was able to advise me on the program, but even better she was able to help me out.
Apparantly in October 2010 the government brought out a new dental benefit program for low income families with children. The income of the family has to be below $20000/year, they can't have benefits through work/school ect. Already Ontario Works (welfare) and ODSP (disability) provide dental benefits so people in those programs are exempt from the new one. What it does is provide dental care, checkups, x-rays, fillings, extractions (anything that isn't considered cosmetic or braces) for all of the children in the family under 18 years of age.
I qualified for the program and was able to get Mister M's teeth fixed at no cost to me!! And I don't have to worry about getting the money together for appointments anymore either, which is nice because $50.00 can buy a lot of groceries (or some new toys!). I'm hoping we don't have to use the program for anything more than check-ups but we'll have to wait and see.
Mister M has also lost his first tooth! It fell out while he was playing on the computer on the 13th. He put it under his pillow that night and the tooth fairy brought him $2.00, he's now working on his second one, which should be out in a week or so. D-man is starting to show signs of teething too, he's drooling a lot, everything is going into his mouth and his sleep patterns have been out of whack. Mister M got his first tooth at 6 months, and D-man will be 6 months on February 19 so I'm thinking we'll be seeing teeth any time now! Until then it's gummy smiles all the way!
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