I live in NJ and have no health insurance at all so I wanted to post about how I dealt with having a wisdom tooth decide to mess me up.
TL;DR If you have any Medical or Dental schools near you, a lot of them have free-clinics where you can get free basic healthcare, and even dental work. It takes time to get seen, the Rutgers-Dental Clinic had an EIGHT WEEK wait but it was absolutely worth it because they helped me out with a wisdom tooth.
So Last Spring, I had this sudden pain in my mouth, left-side top wisdom tooth was coming in-hard. I was going to see the dentist I had been seeing when I was under my parents insurance but boy-oh-boy, did she sing a different tune now that I was too old to be on their insurance and now uninsured. I was absolutely willing to pay, but the moment she heard I didn't have insurance she gave me the boot, just walked away. I was surprised and hurt but, I was an adult and said she might think I'm tryna cop free service which wouldn't be cool.
So I talked to a friend who was on Medicaid about who he sees, cuz he loves his dentist. He sees a dentist at the University Hospital of Newark and swore it was amazing so, one thing led to another. Contacted the hospital but they asked if I had some insurance, even medicaid but I said I didn't even have medicaid, I was probably eligible but I didn't feel right applying for it, I know there's limited funds and I'd rather leave it for the next guy. So they recommended the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, they have a free clinic but their students work on me, along with the dental professors. I had no issue, waited and I'm honestly satisfied with the service. Later after, I actually went to the free clinic at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School. I think that, Hospitals and Med/Dental don't really advertise their services but you should definitely check. You could even have a hospital with an in-house clinic that for some reason keeps it secret.
It's actually kinda sad but, at a later time when I called the Hospital about the free-clinic, they said they didn't have one, so I was confused cuz I didn't know the Rutgers Dental school and hospital are separate, even though they're the same building. Don't let hospitals trick you, if they don't have a free-clinic, ask where the nearest one is. You might be surprised when they say "Oh there's one on the second floor but it's separate from us" Sad but honestly happens. Go get the healthcare you need!
March 02, 2018 at 08:52PM
