Sjogren's and Dental Issues!!! Needs to be a Priority!!!!

I realize that this is in Oregon and one of the dentists that is trying to get ORAL HEALTH a priority in Oregon's Health Authority http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/Pages/index.aspx I gather much like Texas and our (DHS) Medicaid and so on, this is kind of the same thing. The HUGE ISSUE and of course I ran into this right middle of the road like a brick wall - that even though ALL of my DENTAL ISSUES were caused by an Illness SJOGREN'S - NOT ONE Dentist even took my Medicare Advantage Plan or any type of Medicare Coverage plus even if I could have went through numerous appeals, Humana probably would have not covered but about 40% of the 15,000.00 PLUS - (turns out to be over 15,000.00 due to the dentist "leaving off" the charges for the LAST 11 TEETH pulled the day my dentures went in... which was another $147.00 EACH for the 11 - making it another about $1,517.00 or so OVER the ORIGINAL "treatment plan" I agreed upon and signed before the work began. This is a total outrage!!! There is NO WAY ANYONE, and most certainly MOST ON MEDICARE OR DISABILITY can AFFORD OUT OF THEIR POCKETS $15,000.00 IN DENTAL BILLS!!! But. I had NO CHOICE!!
As I have posted over the last year when all of the mess began with my teeth suddenly "rotted" off at the gum line and then falling out! I had 4 of them within 4 months happen... well after the "whole mouth X-ray" revealed ALL of my teeth were doing the same.... So, here I am with all of these Autoimmune diseases, already a HUGE chance of infections due to the illnesses and the medications I am on... and by the way that $15,000.00 was much higher when I went for 2 other opinions!!! That was the Lowest in the ballpark figure...
Anyway, I have told myself and said it here also... WE MUST FIGHT FOR DENTAL HELP!!! When a chronic illness brings on this kind of destruction, there should be coverage through medical insurance... the proof of how the teeth "rotted" showed it was definitely Sjogren's that caused it... so there is NO question as to a medical issue causing the dental stuff...
Anyway, this article caught my eye from Oregon... and I wanted to share this with you also... this is another HUGE PRIORITY (among ALL of the others we have with Autoimmune and Autoimmune Arthritic Illnesses....

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/lawmakers_should_commit_to_sta.html

Sjogren's, Dentures and the Ordeal of the nightmare money wise and pain wise to get "new teeth"...

Some Photo's of Me Recently after getting my dentures - I had never been one to smile in any photo's. I always hated my front teeth. I had "genetically" inherited my top two front teeth being "large". My Dad, my half-brother, I, and my son... and I am sure some of the other family on Dad's side all had the same. Plus my bottom teeth were not straight, and I had a 4 wheeler accident at 25 yrs old, that snapped the bottom half of one of those top front teeth off. I had it "built onto" and it stayed like that until earlier last years 2014, when Sjogren's took my teeth, quickly and quietly. It seemed it quietly came into my mouth, and within 4 months literally rotted about 8 of my teeth from the inside out, just leaving a "shell" that then broke off at the gum line. After having that happen about 4 times within 2 months, I went to see another dentist, who did a "surround" type of X-ray that showed just about every tooth I still had were also going to do the same thing. It was just a matter of a brief few months, and all of them would be falling out at the gum line, leaving me to have to have them pulled. So, I began to "weigh" my options that honestly, were slim to none. Even though it is an "illness" that literally rotted my teeth, and had nothing to do with my own dental hygiene etc... I could not get my insurance to pay one red cent on any of the massively expensive and time consuming work it would take to get me over the "Sjogren's rotting teeth" out of my mouth.

You are talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000.00 to actually more like 15 to 2o THOUSAND DOLLARS of dental work. I had to have ALL of the rest of my teeth pulled. Then due to my bone structure , the Sjogren's, the medications I have to take for the RA, Lupus and so forth, had also had its finger in the loss of every tooth in my mouth. That began about February 2014, and I still am not completely finished with the entire ordeal. After pulling sets of 5 to 7 teeth at one sitting, then they made my dentures, and pulled every last one in the top and bottom that had been left up front and visible. So, that was 11 TEETH in ONE sitting, and then they put the DENTURES RIGHT IN OVER THE TOP OF ALL OF THOSE STITCHES AND PULLED TEETH!! Surprisingly, it was not as painful as I thought, but for weeks and weeks and weeks, and even now I struggle about eating. There are certain things that in no way can I bite into or eat. Most everything has to be finely chopped up, even tomato and lettuce. I have to tear most things apart  in extremely tiny pieces. With the dentures I also don't have as much room in my mouth as I used to. Plus, I still lack going back and having "mini implanted little screw like devices" put into my lower jaw in four places, so that my bottom dentures will fit securely on those and not be moving around all the time. There is no way, I can keep them in place, without having those put in. So, that is another at least 3,500.00 for the four little pins and then adjusting the bottom dentures to fit down over those pins when all is finished. It is pure insanity, money wise, time wise, pain wise and the amount and length of time it takes to complete the entire ordeal. So, now after so many years of wishing for "beautiful teeth" so I can smile, I have them. I just never figured it would be because of some disease that ruined my own, and I would have to deal with a full set of "false teeth" or dentures. So, when you "ask" for something, you may get that "wish" fulfilled someday. BUT, remember it may NOT BE the WAY YOU HOPED for IT TO BE! So, here are a few new pics since my dentures have been put in.   

LOL!!!! Notice I STILL have a difficult time "smiling"... so many years of not because I hated my teeth... so breaking the habit is hard to do.  Rhia