Unplanned, Unavoidable Expenses this year

[EastWest Gal]

We planned to redo all the carpets and flooring, as well as painting our hall and master bedroom this fall. We aimed for October. There were all kinds of delays due to supply chain issues, but it finally happened this week. We had a combination of LVP and carpet put in.

When we partly dismantled our sleep number bed to move it, we discovered two things: the foam in the bed was disintegrating, and ONE BED BUG. So we ordered new foam and have arranged for four weeks of whole house treatment. Sofas, frequently occupied chairs, all beds, baseboards etc. it’s not cheap, but it beats bed bugs.

So an extra $1600 added to our project. Very necessary.

 

[Aerides]

I'd be very wary of folding dental benefits into a medical plan now. As we've observed here, good care can get very expensive. Other discussions have had posts telling of dentists recommending extensive and unnecessary treatment. If implants were covered 100% or even 90%, I can see the less-scrupulous practitioners doing them when a more conservative treatment would work, or doing them for people who smoke or take bone density meds (both of which can make you a poor candidate) or who might not have regular cleanings afterwards to keep the sites around them healthy.

Or worse, wanting to get an implant, getting insurance denied and being told you can only get a bridge instead...(ok maybe that would be like it is now, just pay for it!)
Mind you, I'm firmly on the side that is annoyed to have to get extra insurance for teeth and eyes, but the current structure in the US precludes this changing probably anytime in the next few decades.

 

[RetiredHappy]

For those who have implants, is there any pain after the new tooth is implanted? I had rotten teeth in my teenage years, and now I am left with a ton of large fillings and crowns. Currently, I have no issues with my teeth but one day, who knows if I will be losing some of them.

 

[aja8888]

For those who have implants, is there any pain after the new tooth is implanted? I had rotten teeth in my teenage years, and now I am left with a ton of large fillings and crowns. Currently, I have no issues with my teeth but one day, who knows if I will be losing some of them.

Actually, there is no pain at all during the whole process, if done right. Tooth out and bone graft, if needed (you are under anesthesia), drill and install implant threaded shaft (you are out), make impression for new tooth (no pain), install new tooth (no pain), and no pain using the implanted tooth.

 

[athena53]

For those who have implants, is there any pain after the new tooth is implanted? I had rotten teeth in my teenage years, and now I am left with a ton of large fillings and crowns. Currently, I have no issues with my teeth but one day, who knows if I will be losing some of them.

Nope- there IS pain after the surgery to place the metal plate with the threaded hole in your jaw, but that's to be expected after the anaesthetic wears off. I've never needed more than a dose or two of OTC pain relievers to get through that. The stage where they put in the new tooth just consists of unscrewing the "healing cap" and screwing in the new tooth. No pain at all.

 

[aja8888]

Nope- there IS pain after the surgery to place the metal plate with the threaded hole in your jaw, but that's to be expected after the anaesthetic wears off. I've never needed more than a dose or two of OTC pain relievers to get through that. The stage where they put in the new tooth just consists of unscrewing the "healing cap" and screwing in the new tooth. No pain at all.

I forgot about that minor pain. I didn't even need any pain relievers after that. Maybe I'm pain tolerant after a couple of hip implants and a few other surgeries.

The biggest pain is felt in your bank account after paying for this!

 

[simple girl]

For those who have implants, is there any pain after the new tooth is implanted? I had rotten teeth in my teenage years, and now I am left with a ton of large fillings and crowns. Currently, I have no issues with my teeth but one day, who knows if I will be losing some of them.

Obviously, the experience for implants and pain is quite variable!

For me:

1) Pulling the tooth. I opted to be knocked out. It was a molar. Recovery wasn't too bad but ice off/on for the first day was helpful.

2) Placing the implant. I chose to be awake, there was pain with the needle (UGH) for the numbing. No pain during the implant placement. All done within like 20 or 25 minutes. Recovery was a breeze, nothing like after having it pulled.

3) Having the abutment placed and crown placed. Painful and a long process for me, but I was a difficult case. I was at the dentist for 2.5 hrs (had a cleaning in the middle of it while they made my CEREC same-day crown). The space in my mouth for the crown was very limited so he had to grind down the abutment and also grind down a bit from the upper tooth. That took quite a bit of time with my jaw open (I have TMJ). The gum also had to be incised to make the abutment and tooth fit right. And to get all of the tooth cement out they really had to work aggressively near that already sore gum. So, I ended up having 3 painful injections to numb the gum. My jaw was pretty sore after all of that so I had to ice and take a Tylenol that evening. But then I was fine, and I'm super happy with my new tooth! It feels great and I'm already chewing just fine on it!

 

[aja8888]

Obviously, the experience for implants and pain is quite variable!

For me:

1) Pulling the tooth. I opted to be knocked out. It was a molar. Recovery wasn't too bad but ice off/on for the first day was helpful.

2) Placing the implant. I chose to be awake, there was pain with the needle (UGH) for the numbing. No pain during the implant placement. All done within like 20 or 25 minutes. Recovery was a breeze, nothing like after having it pulled.

3) Having the abutment placed and crown placed. Painful and a long process for me, but I was a difficult case. I was at the dentist for 2.5 hrs (had a cleaning in the middle of it while they made my CEREC same-day crown). The space in my mouth for the crown was very limited so he had to grind down the abutment and also grind down a bit from the upper tooth. That took quite a bit of time with my jaw open (I have TMJ). The gum also had to be incised to make the abutment and tooth fit right. And to get all of the tooth cement out they really had to work aggressively near that already sore gum. So, I ended up having 3 painful injections to numb the gum. My jaw was pretty sore after all of that so I had to ice and take a Tylenol that evening. But then I was fine, and I'm super happy with my new tooth! It feels great and I'm already chewing just fine on it!

Wow! and you call yourself "Simple" girl!!

My last two implant abutment and tooth installations took all of 5 minutes apiece. (remove temp plug, drop in tooth with abutment (the screw) inside, and tighten. All done!

 

[Aerides]

For those who have implants, is there any pain after the new tooth is implanted? I had rotten teeth in my teenage years, and now I am left with a ton of large fillings and crowns. Currently, I have no issues with my teeth but one day, who knows if I will be losing some of them.

For the removal, I go awake (no unnecessary sedation for me please, and I get too loopy on twilight...), but I'm quite firm on being fully numbed up and will get extra if I'm not sure. Think like a root canal.

Then plan on a sore weekend with soup and soft foods. After that - piece of cake for me.

Once it's in and all over with, no you should not be able to tell the difference in feel between your implant and regular teeth. No ongoing pain.

 

[simple girl]

Wow! and you call yourself "Simple" girl!!

My last two implant abutment and tooth installations took all of 5 minutes apiece. (remove temp plug, drop in tooth with abutment (the screw) inside, and tighten. All done!

It seems nothing is ever simple when it comes to my health issues, lol!!!

The oral surgeon did warn me this would be a difficult implant crown to make and fit. So I expected some challenge, but not that crazy!

Oh well, just glad my dentist did a great job!

I was going to say I hope my next one is easy, but wait a minute, I don't want a "next one"! LOL

 

[aja8888]

It seems nothing is ever simple when it comes to my health issues, lol!!!

The oral surgeon did warn me this would be a difficult implant crown to make and fit. So I expected some challenge, but not that crazy!

Oh well, just glad my dentist did a great job!

I was going to say I hope my next one is easy, but wait a minute, I don't want a "next one"! LOL

I'm with you on not wanting any more of these.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Thank you all for sharing your experience. I have a tiny mouth, often commented by dentists. I hope that I won't need major dental work in the future, but sounds like dental implants are not as scary as it sounds.

 

[rodi]

Just got the (hopefully) final bill for older son's ameloblastoma surgery. Before insurance for the surgeon and hospital and misc it was over $45k. After insurance it was just under $3500. He's a part time student, part time worker... I told him I'd pay. Since he is no longer a tax dependent, and no longer on our insurance, I can't use HSA money for this. But he does not need the financial pressure of bills from an obscure tumor.

 

[braumeister]

Just got the (hopefully) final bill for older son's ameloblastoma surgery. Before insurance for the surgeon and hospital and misc it was over $45k. After insurance it was just under $3500. He's a part time student, part time worker... I told him I'd pay. Since he is no longer a tax dependent, and no longer on our insurance, I can't use HSA money for this. But he does not need the financial pressure of bills from an obscure tumor.

Wow, you and he were lucky. From what I've read, that can be a very nasty, although rare, tumor. Fingers crossed that they did a good job on him.

 

[rodi]

Wow, you and he were lucky. From what I've read, that can be a very nasty, although rare, tumor. Fingers crossed that they did a good job on him.

Thanks.

This is his second go round. It's a recurrence. He first had an ameloblastoma removed when he was 15 and a sophomore in high school. (Link to my mention in 2016) Dentist spotted that one on an x-ray where his unerupted wisdom tooth should have been. This time the dentist (different dentist) thought he needed a root canal... Nope - it was back. That was last July. He moved out and changed insurance in August. He was in town for my birthday in September and you could just see a small lump. He had just changed insurance coverage to his new location and was being slow about getting in to the primary to get referred to the maxillo-facial folks. I pushed him - but the local docs referred him to a doctor near us. This time it grew SUPER fast. From first notice by dentist in July to surgery day it grew to the size of a softball.

Unfortunately, there will be more bills in the future. The cadaver bone and bone paste seem to be forming a bump of new bone on his jaw where the tumor was. Not as bad as the tumor - but a noticeable bony lump. At yesterday's doc appointment the surgeon said he would probably go back and scrape/reshape the extra bone off in 6-9 months. And if the ameloblastoma recurs they'll need to do a full mandibular resection with a fibula flap procedure... fingers crossed that doesn't happen. Oh - and after the jaw shaping in 6-9 months we'll need to get a dental appliance (denture) to put in to replace the missing teeth - to prevent his top teeth from growing down where the bottom missing teeth are.... And that's just a placeholder till he reaches about the 5-6 year mark to see if it recurrs again - when we'll get him dental implants. No point in putting in implants when it has a 30-40% chance of recurrence in the first 5 years. But I guess these will be "expected" expenses...

At least the insurance he switched to when he moved out in August wasn't high deductible. The $3500 would have been MAX deductible/OOP - $7000

 

[Teacher Terry]

With implants it depends on whether you are having one done or half your mouth. I have a high pain tolerance having 3 babies with no drugs. I had all my teeth pulled with just freezing. I had plenty of pain afterwards and took pain medications. 5 months later when I had the 4 on 4 implant denture on the bottom I took pain medications and stayed in bed for 4 days.

My tops failed and I had the implants taken out with just having freezing done. That was a different oral surgeon who wanted to knock me out. After what I had been through I told him it would be a piece of cake. Afterwards he said I was very tough.

 

[Scuba]

I guess all the money we’ve saved over the years driving older cars finally caught up with us. DH had a $5K repair bill for his car a couple of months ago. Just this week, I got a similar surprise. Both of our cars are 2007’s. We decided to fix both of them. Although we are spending close to the entire value of the cars to fix them, that seemed better than the alternative of going out and dropping $100K+ on a couple of new cars.

In addition to these two major car repair bills, we decided to put in solar and are in the process of getting that done, which will cost $36K. We also replaced some furniture this year and had some work done inside the house for about $20K. And we had to buy a new fridge and do a few other repairs to our rental property to the tune of $4-$5K this year.

As other posters said, good thing this happened at a time of great market performance. The portfolio looks pretty good despite all of this.

 

[jollystomper]

Our only "unplanned" expenses this year (so far) were about $3,000 in medical ( root canal for me, bone spur surgery + rehab for DW), $500 repair for our 8 year old refrigerator, and a $650 whole house duct cleaning (though many said this does not make a difference, we figured what the heck, and have noticed some environment improvements from it).

We had some legal expenses related to estate planning, but I knew we would have spend this going into retirement, so not really unplanned, we just decided to bite the bullet this year. Our auto maintenance this year has not been out of line from what we expected (things that require periodic maintenance like tires, brakes, filters, fluids), due to the age of our cars. We are waiting for some older appliances to move into "beyond simple repairs" mode, so replacing them will not be a surprise.

Even after upping our Christmas/Holiday gifting, our 2021 cash flow will likely be negative by just several hundred dollars. We are still spending less than we planned. Even is we had been able to spend our $20K allocation for international travel, we would still be below our extravagant spending level. We hope to work on that in 2022 .

Well, as the saying goes, man plans, God laughs...

DW was in an auto accident about a week ago. Fortunately she and the other driver walked away fine. We received notice today from the insurance company that the car (2011 Corolla) is a total loss. Not surprising, as everything from the radiator and forward was pretty much obliterated.

So... we will now have a car to purchase, though given the time of year, and us having 2 other cars, we do not have to rush it. Not too unexpected as our retirement planning had me expecting to replace this car, just not in this fashion .

It is a blessing that this incident is just an inconvenience and nothing more.

 

[athena53]

I was just reminded of this thread on pet expenses.

At least that's one source of unexpected expenses I won't have.

 

[COcheesehead]

Just had an interesting one the other day. I owed about $3000 in taxes to the state in 2018. I filed, did a direct deposit and moved on with life. So I thought.
A couple weeks ago I get a letter from the state saying I never paid my taxes in 2018 and I owe the original amount plus penalties and interest.
I’ll make a long story short. I was able to look at every letter ever sent to me by accessing my tax account with the state. Apparently they sent me a letter late in 2019 after we sold our house and moved saying the direct deposit did not go through and I should please try again. The letter was never forwarded and I never got the message in 2019. It took until a couple weeks ago for them to inform me again. Sigh. It’s my fault, but circumstances were certainly odd.