The Corner Penthouse

This is the latest in a series of articles about the dental hassles that I have had to go through due to being poor, and thus not being able to afford proper dental insurance. It was never meant to be a series of articles, but I have had to endure so much bullshit, which I felt needed to be documented, that it's now become an ongoing series. I really hope that at some point an insurance company and dentist will take pity on me and finally put me in a situation where I'll be set for life and I won't have to continue dealing with this over and over again. Read on to find out more...

Let me start by stating everything that has happened that got me to this point.

• FROM CIRCA 1995 TO PRESENT - I have had at least TWO DOZEN different dentists (some listed in my 2021 article), across residences in two different towns, because I have state-provided Medicaid insurance. The routine would be: I would find a local dentist, in walking distance, that accepts Medicaid. I would start going there and things would be fine. Then after (usually) two years, the dentist would decide to STOP accepting Medicaid, and call me up the day before my scheduled appointment to tell me. Rather than continuing to accept Medicaid for all pre-existing patents, the dentist would just put his profits ahead of his patients and kick them to the curb. I would then have to start the routine all over again. (I have heard that most dentists don't want to accept Medicaid because they're slow to pay out. I think it's really because accepting Medicaid means that the dentist has to accept a pre-set price for work, so he can't overcharge with his own prices. The easy fix is for the U.S. government to force dentists to accept Medicaid as a requirement for getting a medical license.)
  
  
• JULY 2021 - The last dentist I saw while I only had Medicaid insurance was in the Summer of 2021. The dentist wanted to fill some teeth, but due to my anxiety and sensitive gag reflex, the work could not be done. This dentist did not provide Nitrous Oxide gas, or any form of stronger sedation. I went for a year and four months with unfilled cavities because there were no local dentists that accepted Medicaid and provided gas. Actually, there was one: a pediatric dentist who refuses to see adult patients, which seems like discrimination to me. I'm pretty sure that's illegal.
  
  
• SEPTEMBER 2021 - Realizing that I needed better insurance than straight Medicaid, but not having the money to pay for better insurance, I figured that my only option was to sign up for one of those Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) for individuals with both Medicare and Medicaid that I constantly see advertised on TV. After conferring with all of my doctors, I settled on Aetna, and became a member as of October 1, 2022.
  
  
• OCTOBER 2022 TO DECEMBER 2024 - Aetna provided the dental insurance themselves, which gave me a $2,000 yearly allowance for almost all procedures, except cosmetic. After a rough start with some disreputable dentists in town, Marilyn Gaughan (from Aetna's Medicare Executive Resolution Team) got me set up with The Smilist. I started going there in March 2023, and although the front desk receptionists kept insisting they didn't accept my Aetna dental insurance EVERY TIME I WENT THERE IN 2023, Aetna paid for all of the work without issue. The Smilist also did the Nitrous Oxide gas, so the situation was perfect.
  
  
• NOVEMBER 2024 - Aetna didn't want me to finally have a perfect dental situation after 30 years of cycling through dentists. In a move that I'm sure the Aetna execs did because it saves them money - while they still earn their executive bonuses and pay raises - Aetna decided that starting in 2025, they would no longer provide me with Aetna dental insurance! Instead, they would force me to use an unknown no-name (to me) third-party known as Liberty Dental Plan for all of their members dental insurance. To make matters worse, Aetna failed to properly notify their members of this BIG FUCKING CHANGE. I only found about it when I received my 2025 Aetna member card and noticed that in the upper right corner it now said "Liberty Dental". Immediately, I got in touch with Marilyn Gaughan to voice my concerns. After all, she found me The Smilist, and got me into a good situation. As expected, she reported back that The Smilist was not in-network with Liberty. Yes, for the first time, it wasn't the dentist that dropped my insurance, it was my insurance that dropped the dentist. I asked for Marilyn to get Aetna to give me back the Aetna dental insurance, but of course, a big corporation will not do the right thing for their members. Remember folks, the American Healthcare System puts profits before people.
  
  
• DECEMBER 2024 - Since I wanted to continue seeing The Smilist, and Aetna would not let me, my only option was to find a new insurance company that The Smilist was in-network with, and that all of my doctors would accept. Making matters worse is that I found about Aetna's devious dental plan just a few weeks before the U.S. government's "open enrollment" deadline, and right before Thanksgiving, when agencies are closed for the week. That gave me very little time to find a new company and sign up with them. It seemed that the only company that fit the bill was United Healthcare. As noted in my article, their online dental provider search AND their phone reps BOTH confirmed that The Smilist was in-network with them; with EIGHT dentists at the office listed, no less! Having all of that confirmation, I happily signed up with UHC.
  
  
• JANUARY TO MAY 2025 - I officially became a United Healthcare member on January 1, 2025. There were no issues with my doctors, through the OTC program was a big headache, as noted in this article. The most important matter was the dental. In March 2025, when I went for my scheduled cleaning at The Smilist, I would find out that UNITED HEALTHCARE FUCKING LIED TO ME! The front desk receptionist took one look at my UHC card and said, "We don't accept this." I pulled out a printout from UHC's dental provider search showing the eight dentists, and without even looking at it, she said that none of them were still at the office. I never felt more angry and depressed in my life.
  
  
• MAY 2025 - Since United Healthcare LIED to me about The Smilist, and having other issues with them, I knew I had to leave them IMMEDIATELY! Normally the U.S. government doesn't let its citizens switch insurance providers in the middle of the year; only during an "open enrollment" period that generally runs from mid-October to early December. I suspect that the large insurance companies made the government do this so those companies can wring a year's worth of money out of its members. Thankfully, after informing the government healthcare.gov phone rep that I needed to make the change due to being LIED to by United Healthcare, they made an exception and put me back onto Aetna. Sure, it meant that I wouldn't have any dental insurance - because as previously noted, The Smilist was not in-network with Liberty - but I could not stay with United Healthcare any longer. As of June 1, 2025, I was an Aetna member again.
  
  
• OCTOBER 2025 - On a lark, I decided to check Liberty's dental provider search to see if there were now any in-network options. Imagine my surprise when I saw several dentists at The Smilist that were listed. Having been burned with this before (see UHC), I felt that I should contact Marilyn Gaughan to confirm the information. I sent an e-mail to Marilyn at the MedicareExecutiveResponse@aetna.com address, but instead of Marilyn, it was responded to by Cindi Dorfzaun from the same executive response department. She confirmed that The Smilist "is in-network with Liberty, however, the providers below are no longer with The Smilist. There are now three providers only in the practice: So Park, Valeria Persaud, and Paul Natter." Taking it one step further, I asked Cindi to call The Smilist office and personally confirm with them that they accepted Liberty. As per an October 14, 2025 e-mail from Cindi, "I called an spoke to Debbie. She confirmed you are an established patient, and the claim will be sent and paid for." That was GREAT! I even went in person to The Smilist office and confirmed it with Debbie myself, and gave her a copy of my Aetna member card which states that I have Liberty Dental coverage. I guess sometime in the past 11 months (from December 2024 to October 2025) The Smilist became in-network with Liberty.
  
  
• OCTOBER & NOVEMBER 2025 - I had lots of work done at The Smilist, starting with a cleaning and x-rays. Dentist Anam Khalid found a few cavities that she wanted to fill, one new crown she wanted to put on, and one old crown she wanted to replace. Over the course of several weeks, I had all of the work on the right side of my mouth done, but nothing on the left side of my mouth. This is because in early November, Debbie told me that all of the work done so far totaled $1,932.00 and that my Liberty insurance has a $2,000 yearly allowance. If any of the left-side work were to be done now, I would have to pay for it out of pocket. Obviously, I could not do that, so I made an appointment for early 2026 to have the rest of the work done.

If you're still with me at this point, we have now reached February 2026; the present.

The month didn't start off so well when, on February 2nd, I received this $1,932.00 bill in the mail from The Smilist.


I always find it amusing when doctors send me bills, especially substantially large bills like this, thinking that I have the money to pay them. If a doctor is serious about being paid, do NOT send the bill to me. That only guarantees that it WON'T be paid. It's my insurance companies who have the money to pay my bills, and are responsible for paying them.

Putting aside the pointlessness of sending a bill to me, I think I know what happened, and it's actually Aetna's fault; and only partly The Smilist's fault. You see, the Aetna member card that is also used for dental services DOES NOT HAVE ANY LIBERTY DENTAL INFO ON IT. The front only says "Liberty Dental" in the upper right corner and has no other relevant information. The back has a provider website (aet.na/LibertyDental) and a Dental Customer Service phone number (1-866-610-0282), but no dental plan information. However, the BIG PROBLEM is that it says to "Send claims to: Aetna Medicare, PO Box 981106, El Paso, TX 79998-1106". So, of course, The Smilist figured that they should send the claim to Aetna Medicare.


As was noted in the papers Aetna sent me (one claim example below), all of the claims were "DENIED" with Note #4, which states, "We asked your provider to send this claim to Liberty." Also, for some reason, it lists Dr. Khalid as an "out-of-network provider".


You will notice that document shown above is dated November 13, 2025. At no point in the three months since then did anyone at The Smilist submit the claims to Liberty, as Aetna instructed them to do. Instead, they thought it would be wiser to send the bill to me. Furthermore, it states, "However, you are not responsible for paying the billed amount because you received this service from an VBID DSNP Direct Access HMO - Medicare (Aetna) provider OR based on a referral from an VBID DSNP Direct Access HMO - Medicare (Aetna) provider." I don't know what all of that means, but it clearly says that I am "not responsible for paying the billed amount", so The Smilist should NOT have sent me a bill.

I should also state that after receiving that bill, my first instinct was to contact the high-level Aetna reps, Marilyn and Cindi, to get to the bottom of the matter. Using the MedicareExecutiveResponse@aetna.com address didn't get me either lady. Instead, I was introduced to a new rep: Veronica P. She is the rep currently handling my case. Hopefully she'll be able to get me a resolution that will give me a long-term permanent solution to my dental woes, but my experience has shown me that large corporations, and the people who work for them, don't care about the "little guy".

Anyway, the $1,932 bill for the 2025 work is just the tip of the iceberg of bullshit I have had to deal with this week, and it gets MUCH WORSE...

I went into The Smilist office on Wednesday February 11, 2026 at 11:15 AM for my scheduled appointment with Dr. Khalid to do all of the left-side work that went undone over the past three months. First, I asked Lorena and another woman at the front desk (whose name I forgot to get) if they sent the claims for the 2025 work to Liberty. They said that it was sent the previous Friday, February 6th; the day after I got a call from Danielle in The Smilist's billing department asking me for my Liberty information, such as the group number. (I told Danielle that there isn't any Liberty-specific information on my Aetna card and that she should call Liberty to get whatever information she needs.)

As for the dental work that I was there to have done, they had a treatment plan already printed out and ready for me to sign. I didn't even get to look at it, much less sign it, because they looked at the computer and told me that Liberty will only pay 50% of the work, and that I WOULD HAVE TO PAY $600 OUT OF POCKET! WHAT THE FUCK!!! At the end of 2025, Debbie told me that my Liberty insurance had a $2,000 yearly allowance. That means that I do not have to pay anything out of pocket unless the work goes over $2,000. There was no "Liberty pays half, you pay the other half" bullshit. (NOTE: Based upon what I was later told by Liberty rep Katie, this 50/50 bullshit was not correct. I have no idea why the front desk receptionists at The Smilist would give me false information. It's not the first time, sadly.)

It was confirmed by Aetna executive rep Cindi, and myself, in conversations with The Smilist office manager Debbie in October 2025 that The Smilist was in-network with Liberty. As I've always known it, if a provider is in network with an insurance company, it means the work will be 100% paid for because both companies agreed on a set amount to be paid.

Since I could not pay $600, I had to leave the office - dejected and depressed - without having any work done, even though it had been put off for the past three months because Debbie said I had a $2,000 yearly allowance that was to have reset on January 1st. I now believe that Debbie was wrong about Liberty having that allowance, and that she was confusing Liberty for the Aetna dental insurance I had in 2022, 2023, and 2024, which DID have that $2,000 yearly allowance. That's the insurance that I NEED to get back, but I doubt Aetna will give it back to me.

Who knows what, if anything, Liberty will pay of the $1,932 for the 2025 work that I had done under the false pretense of having insurance with a $2,000 yearly allowance.

As soon as I got home, I called Aetna executive rep Veronica P. at 12:35 PM. She pulled up my 2026 Evidence of Coverage, but without having any procedure codes from the dental provider, she couldn't give me much information. She did find out that crowns are covered when medically necessary and require pre-authorization. Eventually, she transferred me to Katie at Liberty's customer service line (1-866-610-0282). Katie said that my benefit will pay for crowns, fillings, and gas. She also said that I do NOT have out-of-pocket expenses (phone recording snippet below), but that there are limitations.


Oh, boy are there limitations! Again, below is the relevant snippet of the phone conversation, though I have also listed the limitations below in case you don't want to spend 7-minutes listening to the audio.


Here are the FUCKING INSANE LIMITATIONS Katie told me that are imposed by Liberty Dental:

• FILLINGS - One per tooth in my lifetime!
• REPAIR FILLINGS - One per tooth every 60 months (aka FIVE YEARS)!
• CROWNS - One per tooth every 60 months (aka FIVE YEARS)!
• NITROUS OXIDE GAS - Requires pre-authorization and only for 60 minutes.
• TOOTH EXTRACTIONS - Covered with NO limitations.

Of course they will pay to have teeth extracted, but not for ongoing life-long work to keep the teeth.

I just, begrudgingly, created an account on Liberty's website so that I could see the entire Summary of Benefits pdf document. It's a SIX-PAGE TINY-TEXT HORIZONTAL CHART that lists every excuse Liberty could come up with for why they will NOT pay for this and that. (Below is just a small snippet of one page as an example.) After looking at that, it doesn't look like there is anything that Liberty WILL pay for. I guess that's how Liberty saves money. Another example of what is wrong with the American Healthcare System.


After speaking to the Liberty rep, and realizing that they probably won't pay for any of the work that is left to do, much less anything in the future, I felt like I should make The Smilist aware of just how dire my situation is. Not just because I don't want them to send me any more bills, but also because I would like to finally have a permanent dentist for the rest of my life. Rather than dealing with anyone at the front desk, I felt it would be best to speak to the dentist herself. On February 11th at 3:06 PM, I received a call back from Dr. Anam Khalid. First, I told her that I couldn't be seen today due to Lorena (and the other lady) saying that Liberty would only pay 50% of the work and that I'd have to pay $600 for the other half. I told her about Liberty's insane limitations, which makes it seem like none of the work will be paid for. To find out for sure, I asked her to submit today's treatment plan to Liberty for pre-authorization to find out what they would pay. Khalid said that she would tell them at the front desk to do this.

I really wanted her to understand that I am a very-low-income individual with one fixed-income check a month, which isn't even enough to pay the rent on the place where I'm living. I had to get someone to move in after my parents died so that I wouldn't be homeless. I am hoping that she, and the other staff at The Smilist, will take pity on me and be willing to make considerations for me so that I can continue going there for the rest of my life. I can't keep looking for a new dentist every two or three years. I've run out of dentists.

(1) One consideration they could make would be to use my secondary insurance (Medicaid) to pay for what Liberty doesn't, as all of my other doctors do. I know that dentists don't like accepting/using Medicaid, because they're either slow to pay or forces the dentist to accept a lesser amount, but I am hoping that Dr. Khalid and The Smilist won't be like the other greedy dentists. (2) Another consideration would be to write off what Liberty doesn't pay for as "charity work". Yes, I realize that's a big "ask", but hopefully Liberty would pay enough that they would still get enough money for the work.

The worst case scenario is that since Liberty will pay for tooth extractions with no restrictions, anytime a tooth needs to be filled or have a crown put on it, the tooth will just be removed, instead. Hopefully this won't happen enough times that I will have no teeth left.

Dr. Khalid seemed somewhat sympathetic to my plight. She said that she will send an e-mail to Debbie (the office manager) to try to get this straightened out and that they will be in touch.

I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worse. It seems that the Liberty Dental Plan isn't insurance, only the pretense of being insurance.

[UPDATE - 2/13/2026]
After publishing this article, I sent a link to it to Veronica, the folks at the Smilist, and Liberty Dental president Tom Choate (guessing that his e-mail address is tchoate@libertydentalplan.com). Apparently, I was correct about the e-mail address, but my message was blocked because I "don't have permission to send" it to him.


As noted in the message sent when it bounced back, I am not on "the accept list for the recipient". I think it's really shady that Liberty's president, Tom Choate, doesn't accept external e-mails from his company's members.

I never heard back from anyone at The Smilist, though I did get a reply from Veronica that read a bit like a series of disingenuous pre-written statements, but it did confirm that there are $0 co-pays.


At this point, I would like for Veronica to explain this to the folks at The Smilist, so they won't continue with the "You have to pay 50%" nonsense, which was clearly wrong. I just sent her a reply asking her about the dental work that is still left to be done, which I couldn't get done this past Wednesday, Feb. 11th, and has been put off for three months now. I would also like for her to explain why Aetna took away the Aetna Dental insurance I was given in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and why Aetna won't give it back to me. I know that she will NEVER admit that Aetna did it to save money, but it's worth a shot to ask :-)

[UPDATE - 2/19/2026]
I received another reply from Veronica on the 17th, which is pretty much the same as the reply from the 13th. I don't think she was fully understanding that I wanted her to educate the folks at The Smilist, so I had to explicitly state it. This is what I wrote in an e-mail reply on the 17th:

Please call The Smilist in Valley Stream to find out if I can schedule a new appointment for the dental work that is still left to be done, which I couldn't get done on Feb. 11th, and has been put off for three months now.

Please make sure that Liberty will pay 100% for what needs to be done, and let them know at The Smilist about that. I want to be able to schedule a new appointment, without worry that I am going to be billed for the work.

When I was there on February 11th for the scheduled appointment, the ladies at the front desk (Lorena and another whose name I did not get) told me that I'd have to pay 50% of the bill, which is why I left without getting the work done. I do not think they were correct about that. They don't know what they're talking about. I need you to set them straight. Thank you.

Since this is a vitally important matter, and I did not receive a reply from Veronica in 24 hours, I sent the e-mail again on the 18th. Another 24 hours pass without a reply, so I sent it again today, February 19th. I really want to make sure that the folks at The Smilist are on the same page so that I can go back and get the work done.

The third time was the charm as Veronica called me today. For whatever reason, I tried to pick up while she was leaving a message on my answering machine, but she did not hear me. It might have been an issue with my phone; I don't know. Anyway, she did send an e-mail a few hours later with the resolution letter attached.


The letter re-stated that my 2026 dental benefit has a "$0 copay for covered services" which "include oral exams, cleanings, fillings, extractions, crowns, dentures, and more". It also re-stated that "[my] dental provider, The Smilist, is in network with Liberty Dental." That is great news. That should mean that I won't be asked to pay when I go back to The Smilist.

Interestingly, the letter also states, "Additionally, we confirmed that your 2025 and 2026 dental plans do not include a $2,000 annual limit, despite what may have been communicated to you by the provider." So, Debbie at The Smilist was wrong when she told me at the beginning of November 2025 that the work had to stop because I reached my $2,000 yearly limit. That means that the remaining work COULD, and SHOULD, have been done three months ago. It never needed to have been put off until 2026.

Anyway, I was able to get in touch with Marjorie at the Smilist, the same person that Veronica spoke to, and was able to schedule an appointment for next week. Hopefully everything will go well.

[UPDATE - 2/25/2026]
I swear that I am the punchline in some cosmic joke. The dental work that SHOULD have been done last year has now been scheduled SIX times already.

1. Nov. 10, 2025 - The dental work SHOULD have been completed on this day, but Debbie at The Smilist told me that my insurance from Liberty had a $2,000 yearly limit. (I now know that was incorrect.) So, the remaining work was scheduled for January 6, 2026, after the (non-existent) "yearly limit" would have "reset".
2. Jan. 6, 2026 - Unfortunately, I got sick at the end of December/beginning of January, so I had to reschedule for February.
3. Feb. 9, 2026 - The day of the appointment, I got a call from The Smilist telling me that they had to re-schedule because the doctor's assistant was in an accident. It was re-scheduled for two days later.
4. Feb. 11, 2026 - As previously noted in this article, I went in on this day and the front desk receptionists INCORRECTLY told me that I had to pay 50% off the work. I knew that was wrong, but I couldn't prove it at the time, so I left because I did not want to be on the hook for $600, as they told me I would be. I contacted Veronica at Aetna, hoping that she would immediately call The Smilist and set them straight on the matter. It took her over a week to finally do that; on February 19th. That's when I spoke to Marjorie at The Smilist (the same person Veronica spoke to) to schedule a new appointment for February 24th.
5. Feb. 24, 2026 - I thought that I would finally get the work done, but Mother Nature had other plans. A blizzard occurred on February 22nd & 23rd, dumping so much snow that it was not possible to safely walk to The Smilist office on the 24th. I don't think the office was open, anyway, because all of my calls that day went to voicemail. On February 25th, I was able to get in contact with someone at The Smilist, and now have an appointment for March 4th.
6. Mar. 4, 2026 - Assuming no more problems, the work will finally be done FOUR MONTHS after it should have been.

Getting the work finished is only one part of dental problems I have to deal with.

I already have enough worries about the dental work itself done, due to my anxiety and sensitive gag reflex, and that it seems like Liberty will NOT pay for the needed Nitrous Oxide gas. Now The Smilist is giving me MORE to worry about. Today, February 25th, I received this $670.30 bill in the mail from The Smilist.


If you look at the full uncropped bill by clicking on the image above, you will notice that it doesn't mention what this $670.30 is for. There is no itemized list of charges or any explanation of why they expect for me to pay this. Although this new bill is far cheaper than the $1,932.00 bill I received a few weeks ago, on February 2nd, they still should not be sending bills to me. For starters, I already made it clear to them over the past few weeks that I am a charity case. If the insurance doesn't pay, they will not get paid. So, they need to make sure that the insurance pays for everything. Thinking they can get the remainder from me is laughable.

Even if I could afford to pay, I would not since the dental work was done under false pretenses. I have it well-documented that Debbie at The Smilist told me that my Liberty insurance had a $2,000 yearly allowance. I accepted that the work would be done with Liberty paying for everything up to $2,000. Even though it is now known that what Debbie told me was incorrect, The Smilist has to accept responsibility for telling me that.

I document everything, whether in writing or in recordings, because I have to protect myself for situations like this. Below are snippets from two in-person conversations I had with Debbie at The Smilist. This first one is from October 20, 2025 at 3:00 PM right after I came out from having work done. I asked her if she called the insurance and confirmed that they would pay for everything. She said that she did and they will pay for everything. This $670.30 bill proves that to be INCORRECT.


Then there's this conversation I had with Debbie on November 10, 2025 at 11:30 AM when I went in to have the remaining work done. This is when she told me about my insurance having a $2,000 yearly limit, which she said would reset in 2026. Although I now know that Debbie was INCORRECT about this, too, that doesn't change the fact that the dental work was done under these false pretenses.


Debbie even confirmed to Aetna rep Cindi Dorfzaun that the bill will be "sent and paid for", as per this e-mail I received from Cindi on October 14, 2025.


Again, all of this bullshit is because Aetna changed my dental insurance from Aetna Dental (which DID pay for everything up to $2,000 a year) to Liberty Dental (which has MANY restrictions), just so Aetna can save money. For the first half of 2025, I left Aetna and joined United Healthcare so I could avoid crap like this. Since I'm the butt of some cosmic joke, United Healthcare was just as bad for dental, and, overall, were worse than Aetna.

What blows my mind here is that my Aetna plan is one of those Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) for individuals with both Medicare and Medicaid that are constantly advertised on TV. Medicaid is "poor people's insurance", so Aetna knows that members with my plan are poor and low-income. Yet, they thought it was wise to take away the dental insurance that paid for nearly everything (up to $2,000) and replace it with one that has so many restrictions it barely pays for anything; leaving dentists to send bills for what's not covered to the POOR patients!!!

I don't know if there's another insurance company that I could sign up with that all of my doctors accept, and would provide me with proper dental insurance that The Smilist would accept and would pay 100% of the dental bills. Considering that United Healthcare LIED to me when I signed up, and did nothing about it afterward, I don't trust any of these insurance companies and what they state about their services BEFORE signing up. Since the U.S. government forces citizens to remaining with an insurance company for an entire year, with limited exceptions, I am stuck until 2027 with Aetna and shitty Liberty Dental. Even if I switched to another insurance company, if they turned out to be problematic, and they probably would, I would be stuck with them for another year, as well. The whole system is set up to screw over the little guy while keeping the insurance companies rich.

When I signed up for Aetna in 2022, it was to have AETNA DENTAL insurance; not to have Liberty. Once I had the Aetna Dental stating in 2022, and everything was going well through 2024, I thought that my dental woes were *finally* over. I guess, even after 30 YEARS(!), I'm not allowed to have peace of mind when it comes to my dental.

[UPDATE - 3/19/2026]
It's been nearly a month, so I thought it would just give update. The appointment on March 4th went well. At first, Lorena and the others at the front desk presented me with a treatment plan that was written up to have me pay for the FULL cost of the work that day. When I pointed out that that's a matter for the insurance company, a new treatment plan was written up in which my portion would be zero. I also had Lorena scan in all of my insurance information, and letters and e-mails to/from Veronica at Aetna, so that The Smilist would have all of the documentation that I have.

The work went well considering that Liberty won't pay for the nitrous oxide gas, so I had to undergo the procedure without it. I'd have to pay $75 out of pocket for the gas, which is money I'd have to take from my food budget to pay for. (I think Liberty would reimburse me for the cost, but I really don't know for sure, and I really don't trust them to take that chance.) Considering that the gas hasn't once been administered properly at the Smilist in the past three years, it isn't worth me paying for it. Of course, that now means that getting dental work done is going to be much more difficult. At some point, maybe even impossible, given that work couldn't be done without gas back in 2021.

Today, March 19th, I went back to have the crown insertion. There were no hassles. Hopefully that's a good sign that The Smilist is sending the bills to insurance and the insurance is paying them 100%. My next appointment is in six months, so we'll see how things go from now to then.