#111 Inside Naval Academy Medical And Dental Services - On The Yard (006)

What Every Naval Academy Parent Should Know About BMU and Medical Care

Worried about what happens if your midshipman gets sick or injured while at the Naval Academy? Concerned about medical care during leave periods? This episode provides essential insights into the comprehensive healthcare system supporting midshipmen throughout their Academy experience.

As someone who navigated this system firsthand, I'm excited to share practical knowledge about medical and dental care at the Naval Academy. We'll explore everything from routine checkups to emergency situations, giving you the confidence to understand how your midshipman's health needs are managed.

Essential Healthcare Facilities You Need to Know

• The Brigade Medical Unit (BMU) - your midshipman's primary care headquarters
• Dental facilities providing routine and specialized care
• Orthopedic clinic for sports-related injuries
• Midshipman Development Center for mental health support
• Physical therapy services and referral processes to Walter Reed

Critical Procedures Every Parent Should Understand

• How "sick call" works for immediate medical needs
• The SIQ (Sick in Quarters) process and what it means for class attendance
• Medical chits for injuries requiring light duty modifications
• Transportation arrangements for specialty appointments
• Documentation requirements and company officer coordination

Practical Takeaways for Families

• Communication protocols that keep everyone informed
• Financial responsibilities for different types of care
• How to handle medical situations during breaks without stress
• The importance of maintaining complete medical records
• Building trust in the Academy's comprehensive healthcare approach

For any real estate questions, please text me at 650-282-1964

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The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.

This podcast is independently produced and reflects the views and opinions of its creators. It is not officially affiliated with, endorsed by, or representative of the United States Naval Academy or its affiliates.

Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all.  He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.

He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country.  Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.

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Opening And Veterans Month Highlight

Grant Vermeer 0:00

Hey and welcome back to the Academy Insider podcast powered by the Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation. And in honor of November being the National Veterans and Military Families Month, the Naval Academy Alumni Association Foundation is marking the month by sharing powerful video stories from our Legacy of Valor series featuring World War II and Vietnam veterans. So if you're interested in that, please go check it out. They're doing an incredible thing again to highlight the service of our veterans and military families. So make sure

Today’s Focus: Medical And Dental

Speaker 0:26

to check it out. But on today's episode of the podcast, we're going to be talking about medical and dental at the Naval Academy. I know there are probably a lot of questions about the medical care your midshipmen are receiving, the dental care, how that process is, and especially as we get ready for winter break, what happens if they if something happens while they are home on leave? How do you handle that? What's going on? What is, again, the responsibility of a midshipman? What are you allowed to do? What are you not allowed to do? I know that seems like an anxiety-inducing question. I promise you it's more simple than it really seems, and everything will be okay and super smooth. And so to learn about it, check out this episode. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much.

What BMU Is And Where It Lives

Speaker 1:09

All right, let's dive into medical and dental care at the Naval Academy for the midshipmen. I know this is probably an apparent favorite and special, trying to get a little bit of context and perspective into what's going on, especially as it relates to the health of your midshipmen. And so we'll kind of just start off with like the actual medical entity that exists in Annapolis. And so you're gonna hear a lot about what we call the brigade medical unit or BMU. It'll be spoken. You're gonna hear people say BMU all the time. That's what they're talking about, is the brigade medical unit. I don't know that I've ever heard anyone in my entire life say, hey, I'm going to the brigade medical unit. Like never once in my life. It's always BMU. It is spoken BMU. You will you'll hear it and you'll see it as that all the time. So you have BMU and then you have like an actual dental facility. And both of these are located in the basement of Sixth Wing. If you have any ideas or questions about like the layout of Bancroft Hall, I have made an ask G about the layout of Bancroft Hall, but it's in Sixth Wing, which is very close to like Dahlgren Hall over there in the dry dock restaurant. So you have Sixth Wing in the basement of Sixth Wing, you have BMU, you have your dental facility, and then you also have an ortho clinic, like an actual orthopedic clinic that exists in the Bancroft Hall, again, six-wing basement area as well. So again, as we talk about all these different aspects, we've mentioned ortho, we've mentioned dental.

Clinics On Yard And Referrals

Speaker 2:35

Again, actual BMU, the actual medical clinic is really like a primary care facility. There's not a lot of stuff there. They have an x-ray machine, that's about it. Again, it's really just it's your home port, it's your medical home port. It's the primary care first step. And if you need a specialty or anything, then you're gonna get referred out and outsourced. And again, you can get straight to Ortho, which is just across the hall. You can get referred to again, dental, which is right across the hall. There's a there's a physical therapy clinic, actually, like over in the eighth wing area. And then you also have the midshipment development center. And the midshipment development center is gonna do a lot of sports psychology, mental health, mental well-being, you know, trauma, anxiety, like different stuff like that. All those are gonna be handled by the Midshipman Development Center MBC, which has trained medical professionals in there as well. For any other specialty, if you need any kind of specialty doctor, that is gonna be off campus. And what we mean by off-campus in the majority of cases, you're likely gonna get busted up to like Walter Reed and Bethesda area for the main medical hospital there. Sometimes, again, if a specialty requires or deems something else, you may get sent anywhere, a couple different places. But the the primary medical facilities that you're gonna hear about potentially as a midshipment parent, again, are BMU, the orthoclinic, dental, MDC, physical therapy, and then you would go up to Bethesda and like Walter Reed Hospital if there's anything majorly concerning, or you need like a procedure done.

Who Treats Midshipmen: MDs And Corpsmen

Speaker 4:01

For the personnel that work there, right? I I wanna be very clear that you have full like MDs, like you have medically trained doctors that are that are operating and running the brigade medical unit. You for a little bit of understanding about Navy medical in general, is like the majority of the administrative folks there who are kind of handling scheduling, who are, you know, doing initial check-ins, taking notes, kind of doing the blood pressure checks and the initial vitals. A lot of times those will be what we call hospital corpsmen, HMs. That is their rate in the Navy, hospital corpsman, HM. A lot of times you'll hear that spoken as just corpsmen, right? And so again, these are these things that you may hear, and to help better understand what's going on, one of the like medical assistants that you may have, one of these, again, people who are kind of taking initial consultations who are medical professionals, but they're not MDs, nor are they nurses, but they are kind of like your medical facility staff and assistant support. That would be the Navy rating of an HM. And again, so HM stands for hospital corpsman, but spoken, again, like when people are saying this like in a sentence, like, oh yeah, I went and saw I went and saw the corpsman, or the corman said this, right? Like the corpsman is in reference to the HM, which is this medical, again, assistant specialty specialist. When you get into the fleet, the Corman is again, that was really in specific to like BMU and the hospital setting. Corpsmen are incredible, right? And I want to be very clear that even though they're not MDs and they're not nurses, they receive a ton of incredible training. And you will see corpsmen throughout the fleet. You know, every submarine, submarines don't get a medical doctor, they get an IDC, an independent corpsman who is in charge of all medical emergencies and responsibilities on the submarines. If you had to have an appendicitis or whatever it's called, with surgery that removes your appendix, I think it's an appendicitis, right? If there's an uh a thing, a hospital corpsman, a corpsman is trained to perform that emergency surgery, right? Quite literally. For every Marine Corps, like infantry unit, they have a corpsman because there are no, there's no Marine Corps rate for like medical or corpsman, they're Navy. So the Navy Corpsman can go and join a Marine Corps battalion and become like the medic, right? Like they are the medic with the unit. And so, Corpsman, I want to be very clear, even though I'm talking about, you know, hospital corpsmen is kind of like a meta, like an administrative assistant, medical assistant, taking vitals, et cetera. In the case of this hospital and BMU, Cormen can span a wide range of incredible services to the military community, including being medics, including being emergency medicine folks on submarines, et cetera. And they do incredible work. So some some really cool stuff there. But again, when it comes to the Naval Academy, when it comes to BMU, you have medical doctors who are there on staff. You have your corpsmen who are kind of staffing and working the facility, you have some civilian support as well. And so those are the personnel that you're gonna be dealing with whenever you're going to medical at the Naval Academy. Now, a lot of times, right, when it comes to the midshipman world, you again, a lot of stuff that happens, like it happens quickly, right? Like, you know, there's some things where you have some ailments, different things. Yeah, you can take your time, you can go down, and you know, certain things happen. But a lot of times, like you wake up with the stomach food, or

Sick Call And Getting Seen Fast

Speaker 7:24

you go through this happens. So, what happens if there's like a quote unquote, again, I use the term emergency, not like life or death, but like something happens overnight and you're immediately very sick and like you can't go to class the next day or you need help, ASAP. There's this thing in the in the morning, every morning called sick call. And sick call, again, it's designed to be like if if your symptoms are very mild, they they encourage midshipment just to schedule an appointment, right? Like go schedule an appointment, you can come see the doctor, we'll we'll see you in that. If it's something that's like immediate and in high need, you can absolutely come to sick call every morning and they have doctors and staff on standby to see midshipmen at sick call in the morning. Again, they you know, sick call, they're trying to prevent midshipmen from all coming to sick call at the same time and like having people schedule appointments. But if you come in the morning to like what is known as sick call and you are sick, you will get seen. And so I just want to be you know clear about that. But obviously, for their own sake and efficiency, they're trying to, you know, make sure that it's as good as it can possibly be and encourage midshipmen when they don't have severe symptoms to come schedule appointments so they can be seen appropriately. Now, a lot of times the outcome of going to medical or

SIQ Explained And Misuse Warning

Speaker 8:38

like going to sick all is you can receive what is known as an SIQ chit. So you may have heard this, you may have heard your plebe or you know your midshipmen talk about being SIQ. And so again, I like these terminologies. You can be SIQ, which means you are sick in quarters. The actual SIQ chit is a piece of paper that says you are sick in quarters, SIQ. And so those are kind of like the terminologies you may hear. But basically what that means, if you are SIQ, it means you have received an authorization. You have received an excusal to not go to your military obligations that day prescribed from the doctor, right? And again, what an SIQ chit is, is it is a medical chit. It is a medical author authorization saying this person is sick and they need to rest. Like I, the doctor, am granting them the approval, authority, and excusal to not go to class that day, not go to their military obligations because they need to rest. Right. And so that's kind of the thing. So let's say, again, you have the stomach flu, you wake up, you go to sick hall in the morning, the doctor sees you, and you're like, Yeah, you're in not good shape. Here's a chip for SIQ for 24 hours. So that way, again, you don't have to go to class, relax, rest, let your body recover, recuperate, and then again, 24 hours the next day, you need to be in class, right? And so that's kind of like how it would function and go. SIQ, man, I'll tell you what, there are certain days, again, it's always a balance because it's like all I ever wanted to do was be SIQ so I could just sleep. Just sleep all day. Like that sounded like a dream. But the problem is if you go SIQ and you miss a day of class and you miss again, like for me, basketball practice, like I'd I'd be behind the eight ball in class and in basketball if I started like going SIQ. So it's like again, one of these things that midshipmen are always fighting the balance of like not wanting to fall behind, but always wanting to take care of themselves. And uh and so there's a balance there, but I would also let you know that like if your midshipman is sick, they have the flu, or they have a stomach flu or a stomach bug, they can go, they can get seen, they can get taken care of, they can get prescribed medicine, they can get prescribed antibiotics, and they can get an SIQ chit and like be in their room and sleep and recover and relax if that is what is needed for their body, right? And so that is kind of what this idea of SIQ is. Now, one thing I do want to mention, this is a really interesting one for me. It was actually like hyper personal, is sometimes people try and take advantage of the system, right? They know that being SIQ is a way to get out of class, right? And I quite literally, I kid you not, my youngster year at the Naval Academy, I had a roommate who was, you know, and again, at the time I I didn't know, like I hadn't I had no idea. I was in my own world, like going and doing my own thing. But he was basically, he would not go to class, just hang in his room, sleep, recover, relax, whatever, just like not going to class. And then in our mid-system where you would like submit an excusal or report, he would say that he was SIQ without ever actually going to the doctor and getting an SIQ chip. And again, in the most cases, a lot, the majority of cases, like a lot of people, a lot of teachers, professor staff, they'll just see like, oh, SIQ and be like, okay, like no issue, and and just kind of go on the day, like feel, you know, well, sorry, you're not feeling well. And like that's the extent of it. He was doing it so much that one of the professors actually called our company officer and was like, hey, I just wanted to check in on this midshipman. Is he doing okay? What's going on? And our company officer was like, What are you, like, what are you talking about? Right. And obviously it came and discovered that like he was not actually going to medical, he was not actually sick, he was lying about the SIQ chits, and he ended up getting kicked out of the academy for for multiple honor violations. And uh and so again, it's one of these weird, not weird, but it's one of these situations where like the the sick and quarters thing is one of those systems at the Naval Academy that could be taken advantage of you. And I encourage, again, I don't know that midshipmen actually listen to this, but like, don't get tempted by that. Like, that is the number one way for something to go absolutely wrong and don't do it. And it's also the follow-on for maybe the parents listening that now, again, kind of the policy

Light Duty Chits And Daily Life

Speaker 12:48

and procedure, which is if you get an SIQ chit signed by the doctor, you have to then go bring that SIQ chit that's signed by the doctor and bring it to your company officer to get signed by your company officer so they can acknowledge and receive that, like, okay, like I am aware that you are sick. Yes, I am also giving you authorization to be in your room and I am tracking what is going on. Because if you're sick at a very consistent, like very frequent pace, well, then maybe now your company officer will be your advocate to medical and being like, what's up? Right? Like, does do we need to like get some actual like real tests for this person? Is this more than just a common cold? Like, there are some things going on. This person is missing a lot of class, like, what is happening, right? And so, you know, we talked last week or you know, two weeks ago on the podcast about taps and accountability. Everything we have in the military is about accountability. It's we just we want to make sure that people are okay. And so, again, if you go to this point in your SIQ, you got to bring it to the, you know, your company officer so they can be tracking and they can be accountable and aware of everything that's going on in your world and your life, right? And so, so yeah, so that's that's SIQ. Now, that's like sickness, but what about injury, right? And and this is kind of where the distinction lies because let's say what if you roll your ankle, you know, you don't need surgery, it's not broken, you don't have a compound fracture, but like you roll your ankle during intramurals or you do something and like and you're hurting, and you can't you can't participate in company warning morning workouts, or you can't participate in these things because it hurts and it's only making it worse. Well, then again, you schedule an appointment or you go to sick call, like whatever the case is, and you can also get a again, this would just be referred to as a chit, a medical chit. It's not SIQ because you're not like excused from class, but you can get a chip for being what we call light duty. So midshipmen were placed on light duty or provided with a like a medical excusal authorization form. Again, saying, like, let's say you roll your ankle, you can get a doctor's note that basically says diagnosis, sprained ankle. Midshipman is excused from the following activities marching, parades, PT, or like not even just PT, but like running, etc. And so, like, all these different aspects are there. And again, as a midshipman, you would still resume your regular duties, except for the things that like directly impact your injured area or whatever the case is to go. In the same case as like the SIQ chip, you would need to go and get that signed by your company officer and SEL so they're tracking and they're aware of everything that's going on, because that impacts your ability to complete your full duties as a midshipman, right? And so, again, a lot of times what you see in those cases too is like a doctor may say, like, hey, this midshipman should be in a boot, or this midshipman should not be walking around in just so you got like foot issues, you know, planner fasciitis. They don't want you walking around in your dress shoes all day. It's like, hey, we prescribe you blue and gold so you can wear running shoes for better support of your arches or whatever the case is, right? Like these medical chits can adjust a midshipman's life. Again, maybe they're excused from PT for two weeks, or again, they don't have to wear their working blue uniform, they wear blue and golds for two weeks so they can wear running shoes instead of dress shoes and help with their foot recovery, right? Like these kind of things that'll happen. And again, as a midshipman parent or as a family member, you're walking around the yard, you may see a midshipman, again, amongst the mass of midshipmen who are in their working blues or their NWU uniforms, you may see them in blue and golds or in a boot or whatever the case is, and you'd be like, oh, okay, like they're probably on chit, right? Like they're probably have a medical excusal that is allowing them to kind of be in this specific situation. And so that's kind of what we're talking about when it comes to being on chit and the medical and dental of the Naval Academy.

Transport And Priority Of Care

Speaker 16:29

Now, if you have a serious injury or a serious illness and you need to be seen at Walter Reed, there are shuttles that take you, right? So again, you're as a midshipman, you're not required to transport yourself there. There are shuttles that leave from the six-wing lot right in front of where BMU is that will take you to Walter Reed to be seen, right? And again, so it's just one of those things, again, if you are gonna be being seen for kind of more again, specialized medical needs, again, your transportation will be taken care of. That's nothing you have to do on your own. There's again buses that leave, or I guess shuttles that leave right from six-wing parking lot will take you there, we'll drop you back off. You have duty drivers who kind of do that kind of stuff. So just as a parent, again, no need to be worried or concerned. Transportation, everything will be taken care of. If you have a specialty appointment like that, we quite literally have a table of priorities. And I'm actually gonna put up a little uh note, like a picture here that kind of shows what I'm talking about. But there's a table of priorities in mid-regs that says basically any authorized scheduled medical appointment outside of the Naval Academy with outside specialists, et cetera, is a higher priority than class attendance or scheduled labs or scheduled tests, et cetera. Right. And so when it comes to these medical appointments, I just want to let you know, like that is always the priority. And if you need to go see, be seen by a specialist, again, you're allowed to miss class. You're gonna go and be scheduled whenever that specialist has time, and that is totally fine. You'll be transported there, you'll be transported back. When you miss class, it's not an issue. Again, that is higher on the priority. You know, for non-medical emergency treatments, that's lower on the priority, and you're supposed to schedule, you know, appointments outside during your free periods or when you don't have stuff, and does it always happen? No, you know, appointments may run over, you may be tardy, and just say, hey, I was I was in BMU, right? Like all that stuff works out. It goes back to what we were talking about two episodes ago about communication. Just communicate where you're at and what's going on, and things will be okay. So that's what we kind of have there. Now, in terms of medical and all this different stuff, I know people may have primary care doctors from back home that they really loved, and you have your people, and you got your folks that you

Using BMU As Primary Care

Speaker 18:43

really love and you trust and you like. They're now in the military, right? And you know, it very clearly states that midshipmen shall utilize, shall, shall utilize brigade medical and dental as their primary health care and delta providers for evaluate for evaluation, treatment, advice, and referral for all routine medical and dental conditions. Okay. That shall be your primary thing. No, people are in different life circumstances, people have different abilities, financial abilities, all this different stuff. Michimanu are seen by outside providers. It's not technically against the law, but if you do go see an outside provider, you need to schedule an appointment with BMU to update them on every single thing that was discussed, the care that was prescribed, and whatever coordination of ongoing care you're gonna receive, all of that needs to run through BMU. It does, right? And again, I just highly encourage for the sake of ease, that like again, you just go through BMU for everything. But again, it's very clear that you kind of you need to go through BMU and at least keep BMU and your medical record up to date at all times with what is going on in your medical life and situation. Pause there. Now, before we get to leave in liberty, I just want to talk about dental. Dental, you're basically getting semesterly dental

Dental Care, Cleanings, And Braces

Speaker 21:38

or yearly dental check-ins and cleanings. So your midshipmen are being forced, quite literally, forced, to go to dental all the time and keep their teeth clean and get evaluated and make sure that their teeth are in healthy condition. I mean, quite literally, it's not like they get the option to go. There is a there's a hit list, there is a checklist of midshipmen who have not gotten their dental done or gotten their, you know, like medical checkups done, and they will be forced, they will be required to go get their teeth cleaned. So for all my parents out there, especially those who are dental enthusiasts, just know that your midshipmen is quite literally being forced to go down there and get get their teeth cleaned and evaluated. Also, if you have dental issues, both cosmetic and health-wise, brigade dental will help you with that. Like I know plenty of midshipmen who are quite literally getting braces or invisaligns or other things that are being prescribed by dental. Like you can go there not just for cleanings. Like, if you need a retainer, if you need braces or an Invisalign or a dental procedure, like that is done by Brigade Dental. And they're really good at what they do. So, really, really cool things there. You're gonna get routine dental check-ins and cleanings. And if anything is discovered there that needs uh additional care or treatment, absolutely taken care of by Brigade Dental. Now, for the thing that people probably care most about and are most excited about, what do I do when a midshipman is on

Care On Leave: ER, Urgent, Routine

Speaker 23:01

liberty and leave? Okay. When a midshipman is back home with you on winter break or on spring break or over summer break, the midshipmen are entitled to civilian medical and dental care at the government expense. Now, emergency care, right? Like if something happens and you need to go to an ER, go anywhere. Like you don't need to worry about anything. If there is a legitimate emergency, you can take them anywhere, go to any ER, and it will be covered at the government expense by their TRICARE. Like that the emergency care does not require prior approval. Like that is, that is the reality. Now, if you have urgent or routine care, you need to go to an urgent care, you need to get seen by a doctor. In that case, you need to go get a referral. And so you would do that by like calling the like BMU. BMU has a help line, and there's like a TRICARE online portal line as well that you can call the nurse. Again, when you get in the fleet, it's called the nurse advice line. You would just need to make a couple of phone calls. Your midshipman has that information. They have the numbers. I promise you. They may not have it on them, but they have access to it. They know they can know exactly where to find it. If something happens, you need to go see an urgent care, you need to go see a routine doctor, just call that line and say, hey, I'm on leave, I'm in this place, I need to go see a doctor, this is what's going on. And they will set like send a referral. They'll tell you where to go, where you can go, where, like, again, where TRICARE is gonna cover it, and they'll send you and get everything set up. All right. And so again, emergency, no prior approval required. If there's an emergency, go get seen, go get taken care of, you're gonna be okay. Urgent and routine, yes, just give a phone call first, get that referral, get sent over, and then you can be taken care of. If you are seen by a doctor over that leave period, again, your midshipment is just gonna need to go. It goes back to what we were just talking about. Your midshipman's gonna need to go back when they get back to Annapolis and go to BMU, make an appointment on BMU and document the care and coordination that was received while you were on leave, right? It is really important that the brigade medical has all of your records and everything that is going on. One for your own health and your documentation, but two, again, now that I have perspective into this world, I wish I would have done a better job with my medical record for when it comes to working with the VA, right? Like again, when you are a midshipman, you are active duty, which means any medical issues that happen when you are a midshipman, you are on active duty, those can be a part of your VA health file. And again, if anything

Records, VA Implications, And Documentation

Speaker 25:40

happens during your time on surface, eventually your disability claim, right? And so if you do go seek care in civilian care on leave, make sure you get it brought back to the Naval Academy into brigade so it can be a part of your medical record. It's going to help with your actual health and your care, and BMU can actually better take care of you and serve you if they know everything. But it's also so important for the VA down the line. I'm telling you right now, treat your medical seriously, take care of it, over-report, right? Like be so upfront and honest about everything that's going on to really take care of that. Right. Now, what about in the case of, because again, medical services in the military are going to be for your health. They're gonna be out of necessity or need for elective surgeries, cosmetic things as well, right? This is where I would encourage you to have conversations with BMU about how to handle this process, right? Because a lot of times reimbursement for care of elective non-emergency surgeries are not authorized, right? So just put this in perspective. This is a really interesting one, actually, for me. Okay, I'm gonna be open and honest about this. When I was uh 01 or 02, I was I was a little bit self-conscious about my smile. Funny enough. Again, it's crazy how humans we can do this to ourselves. I was a little bit self-conscious about my smile, not about my whole teeth, specifically just my two, not my two front teeth, but the two ones next to them. I felt like they were they were skinny, there was a gap. I didn't like it, I wanted them filled in. And so I, you know, I went to medical and dental, like brigade, not brigade, I was in the fleet at that point, like the dental clinic on base. And they're like, hey, we don't, we don't really do cosmetic stuff. But you

Elective Procedures And Communication

Speaker 27:42

can go and go get cosmetic dental work done, but we're just not gonna pay for it, right? Like tri-care's not gonna pay for it. And so I actually had gone again as an 01 or an 02 and got two veneers just again on those two teeth, right here. Just these two suckers right there. They're both veneers. I got that done on my own cost, out of pocket cost, by a dental team in Annapolis, because I was just stationed up at Fort Mead, right? So I I got them done there and and they were great, and it was no issues. And I and I reported it back to medical. So now, again, my military medical record, like when they're doing my teeth cleanings and stuff, they know I have veneers, they know to treat it carefully and they understand what's going on. It just wasn't done by military medicine and it wasn't paid for by military medicine, right? And so that's the case. But again, it doesn't prevent you from getting that outside care. Again, you just for outside stuff, you're gonna have to pay for it, and you just need to come back and document it in certain cases to make sure that like everything is taken care of. And again, a good rule of thumb is always go talk to your primary care doctor first and and tell them what your plan is. And and then, you know, they'll be able to be like, yeah, dude, like that's fine, go take care of it. Or they'll be, you know, maybe maybe you shouldn't do that, right? And again, as long as you are kind of again being so many common themes here is just communicate, communicate, communicate. If you communicate what's going on, everything is gonna be okay, right? And you know, I had someone recently reach out about like, you know, allowing their, well, can I, you know, while my while my daughter is on liberty, can I, you know, get them into like some physical therapy and like personal training outside to help rehab a certain thing that's going on? Like, yeah, you're probably again, you're probably gonna have to pay for it out of your own pocket if if the you know militaries determine that like it in in their eyes, she's good enough, like she's fine, like, and you might have to pay for it out of your own pocket, but that's that's totally okay, right? Like you're not gonna get in trouble by going and doing that stuff. It's just when you again, when you try and hide things, that's when we that's that's when issues come about. If you're open and honest and transparent and communicate for all things military, medical, and dental, then you're then you're gonna be okay, right? Again, at the end of the day, I want to be very clear that I'm just speaking my opinion and perspective to help understand all this stuff. Go talk to go talk to BMU, go talk to your medical professionals to get like the most clear directive of all. I'm just trying to tell you again what I've experienced and and how it's all worked, and just let you know that it's it's workable, right? It's workable. You just kind of go, gotta go about doing it. So boom. I think that might be one of the quicker ones I've done in a long time. I hope that was a little bit more efficient and kind of put things into perspective. But

Wrap Up And How To Get Help

Speaker 30:21

uh, but yeah, no, I hope I hope this is good. I think this is a big topic where there may be questions that come out out of this episode. So if you have questions or you have a specific thing going on, feel free to shoot it to me. Be really happy to listen to what's going on and and help, you know, provide a little bit of guidance. But I hope this provided some context understanding into brigade medical, how this all works, what's going on at the Naval Academy when it relates to their to their medical world. So I appreciate it. Thank you so much. If you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise, I hope you have a great day. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it, and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate it to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves, and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen, and their families. Thank you.