DAY# 18;........THE VA WAY............SMILE SAY CHEESES!..........So there you are at the VA for treatment and you find out quickly you are being treated like a felon in a maximum security jail. Most of the time the Vet is suffering from a gambit of problems both mentally and financially. A lot of our patients are homeless and have no way to keep their teeth healthy. Now to add to the misery you have a horrible tooth ache. You are taken down to the dental office. They have one, ONE, ONE procedure for a tooth ache, pull it, that's right pull it. Unless you are a 100% disabled veteran you got the all inclusive " pull the tooth." So there is two choices, stay in pain or have the tooth removed. No temporary fillings nothing. So the tooth comes out, Now back to the unit, you are hurting, no pain meds just the traditional useless Ibuprofen . Maybe just maybe if there is time/manpower you might get a chance to lay down. We the people allow the politicians 300$ hair cuts, have gyms/pools/executive privileges beyond our imagination. The president ran up millions of dollars in vacation costs at the tax payers expense. But G-D forbid the government would take some of their kick back money and provide monies for dental insurance for the veteran. i wish, no pray, that some day people would actually read the stories I post and give us a damn and do something about it. Why is there so much silence?