This is Dental Care for Veterans?

No one likes going to the dentist, least of all me, and most of all my husband. He’s a disabled Vietnam veteran with full benefits. His medical, dental and anything else he needs is covered. It’s the promise we keep when they go to war on our behalf. Unfortunately, when they come home, it’s not always easy to get the care they not only deserve, but actually earned by their commitment to serving in the military. You know, for protecting us and all that good stuff. And if anyone has been paying attention, the VA is a mess right now. Even with all the so-called improvements, it’s still a mess.

We’ll be celebrating 36 years together in May. So, I know first hand how ridiculous things can get. I had two children, both c-sections without the family benefits we were supposed to receive. The first was paid for by another insurance I had. The second, we had to sell our truck to pay for him. We had nothing at all at that time. The VA couldn’t seem to figure out that we qualified for CHAMPUS, not CHAMPVA. So nothing went forward until a very nice woman in Salem by the name of Darlene listened to my story that I had told to anyone who would listen for the umpteenth time and explained to me what we needed to do, and then proceeded to do it all for me while I sat there in shock. I love that woman.

We finally had medical insurance. No vision or dental yet, but at least we had medical. That was in the eighties. Eventually, we got dental which initially didn’t pay much, but dentists in the network agree to accept Tricare’s fee schedule, so not paying full retail for services was something at least. Although each dental office signs a contract with Tricare when becoming a network dentist, I’ve only seen one that actually followed those guidelines. They increase their patient numbers as well as their income by appearing on a list of dentists that we then choose from so that we keep our costs down. We can go outside the network, but then we pay more. If they find that the payments are less than they like, they can always write a letter asking to be removed from the network. It takes about a month, and then they no longer appear on the list. Then they need to inform all their Tricare patients that their costs are about to increase. They avoid all of that drama by saying things like, well, our price is this. The contract they sign is apparently just an inconvenience. They want the clients. Just not the payment. You get the idea. I even had one send me a scathing two page letter explaining what deadbeats we were for wanting him to not breach the contract he signed with Tricare. He did this while on his way out the door to begin his retirement. He overcharged me as many have and then let the new guy send me the refund check. Another dentist had to refund me almost $400. I stopped going to her and went to this moron. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.

We live so far away from the VA facility in Portland that they’ve always given Jerry the option to see someone locally for any care that he might need, unless it was simply too costly and then he’d go down there for care. Now that there’s a clinic locally, he doesn’t have to do that anymore for his medical needs. For any care he’s received, medical or dental, however, the VA has a fee scale they use for payment that not every doctor or dentist is comfortable with. Although clearly there’s overcharging in the medical world, I can’t actually blame any of them for not wanting to take on veterans. The problem doesn’t lie as much with them as it does with the VA and what they’re willing to pay. Watching costs is one thing, but it can’t be at the expense of a veteran’s care.

In 2008 or so, we found a guy locally that would take my insurance as well as see Jerry. When a crown I had him do broke, I contacted the VA to see if there was any more progress on approving Jerry’s work that they had supposedly sent in a request for. The receptionist at the dental office hadn’t been very nice to me when I called before to see if they had heard anything, so I wanted to confirm that they had indeed sent in a treatment request. I had a feeling that they didn’t, and unfortunately I was correct about that. Although he was the only dentist who respected Tricare’s fee schedule, I really didn’t appreciate being lied to, particularly when it had to do with Jerry’s care, so I went to another dentist, paid out of pocket for a new crown, and Jerry went to the VA in Portland. A couple of years ago, Jerry decided to go back to this same dentist in our area for an emergency. He felt comfortable enough to continue going there for emergency visits while going to the VA in between to see the dental resident. Sometime in November or December of last year, they sent in a request for some extensive treatment to the VA for approval.

Having heard nothing from the dentist office, we got up early to keep the appointment the VA dental resident set up for him months ago. I don’t know what made me call them before leaving that morning, but in fact, the VA had cancelled it without telling us. I don’t even want to think about Jerry’s reaction had we driven the 150 miles to the VA Hospital in Portland. I suggested that to the nice man on the phone and wouldn’t you know it, Jerry got another appointment for less than a week later.

So we get up at 4 am and make the trek to Portland. It was a 9 am appointment and by the time we got to the Ross Island Bridge (and yes, I know there are better routes than Powell to take) traffic was so backed up I had to call them to let them know we might be a few minutes late. Irony, a cruel bitch. Or, I’m just more responsible than the VA. Anyway, I drop him at the door, and I find a parking place. He’s still waiting to go in when I get there. Apparently when he gets in there, he unloads on the dental resident. Respectfully, I’m sure, because Jerry doesn’t know how to be anything else. Along with other issues, he shows them his bite and explains the problems he’s been having with it. And instead of taking the time to correct his bite, and after acknowledging it’s a mess, they decided to take more xrays. Again, no care, but lots of radiation. Jerry says every time the machine took a shot, a voice from the machine said, “radiation detected”. Jerry’s convinced that we won’t have to find his grave, we’ll just need a radiation detector, or we could just wait until dark. The glow from his grave ought to be enough. Or the sound of teeth grinding from the bite that was never adjusted…

Jerry called today to schedule his work and found that the original dentist retired. And then the best thing happened! He learned that the new guy is willing to take care of him. Yay! He also found out that the work the dental resident stated had already been approved for some time, was in fact going to take another week or two to ACTUALLY be approved. That’s a new one. Typically, if they say somethings been approved, it’s true. So now we have something new to contend with. It’s getting so old micromanaging people who should need none of this. As soon as the dental office is notified, they’ll call him to schedule the appointment. Finally.

Dental care for veterans shouldn’t amount to xrays, runaround, passing the buck, and extractions. He’s convinced they either want to radiate him to death or just let whatever toxins created by his lack of dental treatment do him in. He’s doing his part. He’s using a Sonicare, he oil-pulls with coconut oil, and he uses coconut based toothpaste that I make. He does everything they tell him to do. But when they cancel deep cleaning appointments and then can’t reschedule another until three or four months later, what good is it? Timing is everything and if too much goes by, then his dental health, and in turn the rest of his health, deteriorates.

I really feel for the new wave of veterans and their families. Our government goes to war on a lie and now we have an even bigger number of folks in the system who aren’t getting care. At least our boys are adults. I can’t imagine what families have to contend with now. Some of the stories I hear make anything we’ve dealt with seem like nothing. Do any of these warmongering right wing nutjobs want to deal with the nonsense we’ve dealt with all these years? Every time I turn on the news, another one wants to bomb Iran. And then there’s the idiot who’s complaining about the cost of Tricare. It’s too expensive. Well, so’s the price soldiers and their families pay when they serve this country during wartime. All my husband wants is to get his teeth taken care of like anyone else with insurance gets to do. He wants to be healthy. So does any other veteran out there.

They give their all. Sometimes things happen. Don’t abandon these people. They didn’t abandon us.