well, that was fast

[wombat_socho]

Went to the dentist this morning (the VA doesn't do dentistry for whatever reason) and I figured it would be routine X-Ray of jaw area, cleaning & scraping, and another appointment to do the drill & fill to fix whatever was giving me the dull pain in my face

Comments

[kishiriadgr]

My friend Nathan has some kind of infection in his mouth that happened while he was in the Army, after one of his deployments. The Army and the VA refuse to see it as something that happened in the line of duty, so now he has rotting teeth that need to be pulled and replaced by either implants or (more likely) dentures. He's a college student and in difficult straits.

I don't know why dentistry is not seen as "medical". Even Canadian socialized medicine doesn't cover it.

[wombat_socho]

I'm guessing because so much dentist work is cosmetic and not actually medical, but I'm not a VA bureaucrat or a lawyer, so I don't know. Good luck to your friend; my dentist and I had a similar conversation yesterday except it was implant v. bridge, and the bridge was cheaper & less trouble besides.