During my dental days (sounds like dog days) with Medicaid, people would call in to request an approval for an emergency root canal. Then they would get upset when they couldn’t get it. We understood they’re in pain, but, the tooth was telling them there was a problem and they chose to ignore it. Now that the tooth is screaming out doesn’t constitute an emergency on our part. You need to listen to your teeth and not dawdle when it’s speaking.

Besides the State didn’t want to pay for root canals from a normal request, so they certainly weren’t going to allow us to approve an emergency one without seeing x-rays first. But if the patient wanted an extraction, we’re good to go.