Hi, I just had long, drawn out nightmare experience with a dentist here in Canarsie. I wanna drop the office’s name but I’m going to be filing a formal complaint with my insurance and whoever else I need to after.

I have Empire BCBS and Liberty Dental (both Medicaid plans). I am a disabled 24 year old woman who hasn’t been able to smile or chew normally for years now. Literally black and rotting teeth falling out of my head at this point. My teeth are like this because I was neglected through childhood & adolescence, finally escaped the circus at 23. I’ve been in therapy since last year and start making my physical health a priority in January. I started seeing the apathetic, money hungry, negligent dentist in January and was told I had multiple teeth infections and needed extractions and root canals. I took his referral for a dodgy oral surgeon run out of an urgent care and it was another terrible experience. Now after multiple appointments with this dentist, his office finally explained they require bone grafting for all procedures to preserve the integrity of the bone and jaw. I get it. But Medicaid never covers bone drafting. The supervisor still had the nerve to ask me to pay out of pocket and submit a claim 🙄 But if anyone had told their job and explained this to me at the first appointment, I would’ve gone on a search for another dental office. Now those multiple teeth infections have become a jaw infection.

At the first appointment and every one thereafter, I explained to the dentist, hygienists, and treatment coordinators I could not afford financing or out of pocket payments. That I would need the offices help creating a treatment plan and sending whatever info needed to my insurance for predeterminations.

I’m starting a 4 month long corporate job training program in September. I’ll be graduating in January and I’ll have job search assistance for a year and corporate partnership interviews. All completely free to me. It’s unheard of really. I’m so lucky and grateful but I’m scared the skills I’ll gain won’t matter if no one wants to hire me because of my teeth. I’m scared I’ll drop dead from this jaw infection any second. I’m really trying so fucking hard to better my life and get off of disability and Medicaid but it’s going to be impossible to without teeth in this country.

So I’m asking and begging for my community’s help because idk how many more zocdoc reviews I can read or how many more phone calls I can make. If you had Medicaid or a Medicaid plan, are there any dentists in this city who are empathetic and willing to work with your insurance? I know I need a lot of work done and dentists need to make a living, pay their employees, etc but I literally cannot afford anything of pocket and I need a dentist who is okay with that.

And while on this topic, what’s the best Medicaid dental insurance? They all seem to be the same but on August 30th, I can switch my health plan if I want. Empire BCBS has treated me really well but if there is a better plan out there, I’d like to learn more about it. Especially the dental plans.

I’m in Brooklyn but willing to travel anywhere atp for a good dentist willing to work with my insurance. Thank you for any and all help!!! I love you my fellow NYers.