Hi, ginnie:

The medical insurance I have is CPS (Caisse de Prévoyance Sociale), the French Polynesian public health system. It does not cover crowns or bridges, except for the people who work there, who are already over-privileged with their high salaries, including the cleaning people . The other people, including foreigners, who are lucky enough to be in France, can go to dentists' schools (the waiting list is extremely long) and have crowns and/or bridges done for a much cheaper price. Unfortunately, this is not where I am. So I have to live with this broken tooth, until other teeth, then other teeth, decide to break also. Than I can only eat baby foods or soft foods like mashed potatoes and yogurt, for example.

Quote: "I think it a shame dental issues are so expensive it puts good care out of the reach of many people."

This is even worse during celebrations like Birthdays, Father's or Mother's Days, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve Day, and January 1st celebrations. During these celebrations, the members of my family (parents, brother, sister-in-law, uncles, aunts, cousins, their husbands or wives, etc.) look at me with a murderous look in their eyes if I cannot afford to offer them an expensive gift or if they get a cheap gift. These members of my family are satisfied only when they get expensive gifts. The more expensive the gift a person offers, the more appreciated this person is. If some member in my family is poor (like me), this person will just have to accept being unappreciated because she is poor.

Quote: "The teeth were pulled because I could not afford the gum surgery and three new crowns to the tune of $5,000."

I hope that we and all the other persons who need it get the money we need. In my case, no one seems to understand I have a serious disease (generalized internal chronic RSD), whose treatment (maybe a cure) in Germany costs at least U.S. $ 50,000, not including treatments that have to be done in case of complications caused by this treatment, which is the inpatient RSD Ketamine Coma Procedure.