Preface: I am Australian. My teeth need help. They make me sick.

Anyway, I'm seeing an oral maxo faxo guy who is going to apparently,
restore me to full health. None of his fees are covered under
Australian Medicare. The anaesthetists  fees are covered (to a
degree). I'm paying most of the 3 grand and will be glad to pay.

But what about the others who cannot pay or cannot get approved for
credit to pay? They are not covered by any Guv'mint dental plan,
because they are on low incomes (just not low enough to qualify for
any financial help).

When do one's teeth become "medical" and thus covered under one's
private paid health insurance or one's country's medical system? Is it
when the bone in one's jaw becomes infected and "soupy" as I've read
(ugh - that is SCARY!)? Or when the infection from a cracked wisdom
tooth root (not seen on an x-ray or ct) gives one brain damage  - btw
can that happen? or near death from infection?

I saw an acquaintance of mine (in January this year) WAIT until he was
mad with infection to go to hospital as an emergency case to get
dental care. He was/is a labourer (manual work). He lost most of his
back teeth. At least he can work now. If he had gone to the
dentist/oral maxo faxo when he ought to have gone, he would owe
thousands now and still have no teeth in his head (they were very,
very ickky and bad I wish I had a pic for you dental sorts.)

It gives me the irrits that teeth are seen to be different to the rest
of the body.  They are in our HEADS for pete's sake. They are
surrounded by mucous and in the germiest part of the body. Why are
they not "medical". They oughta be. What if the world over, we were
told that genitals were not considered medical because we used them
for "other stuff".

Teeth are in contact with jaw bones are they not? They can poke into
our sinus can they not? Bad teeth can kill us - YES? My maxo faxo
guy's office manager told me it was this way because *everyone* has
teeth and *everyone* would want help with their teeth given the
chance. Well DOH! Everyone has genitals and toenails and lungs. If
health insurance and Medical plans and Australian health care covered
people's oral care properly imagine how healthy people could be!

Disclaimer: I come from a family of chalky teeth (whatever that means,
to me, it means I can't drink a good Red without mega staining) and
have managed to keep all of them except two (a wisdom and a molar -
both from the same spot)  for 38 years. I say goodbye to 3 of the
wisdoms in two weeks and I'm thrilled.

Say goodbye to my impacted wisdoms and even the fully erupted but non
functional wisdom (it sticks out at an almost 90 degree angle)
everyone ;)

Stephie (in Australia)