A new car! Went to the dentist this morning for what is called a "routine cleaning". I knew going in that it wouldn't just be "routine". I have a tooth that was chipped and is broken, and has been that way for about a year. The dental assistant and the dentist were both amazed that there had been no pain or discomfort on my part. I was thinking to myself, if there was pain and discomfort don't you think I would have been in to the office much sooner after it had happened? But that's just me.

As the dental hygenist is looming over me, metal pick in hand, to begin the cleaning, she asks, "have you been using a soft bristle tooth brush?" Of course I answer yes, even though I couldn't tell you what kind of bristles the brush has. I'm not about to argue with a woman wielding a sharp and pointed instrument of "cleaning" prior to her attacking my mouth. Am I the only one that sees the irony here?

Once again, I received the "you need to quit smoking" lecture. Fair enough. But I didn't come here for a lecture. Just clean the frapping teeth and let me worry about the lungs. When you start doing bypass surgery and lung transplants, then I might not be so pissy about your lectures.

At the end of it all: one broken tooth that will require a root canal, a crown, and a crown lengthening; one cavity that will require drilling and filling; and one tooth that has an abscess and will need to be pulled to be replaced with an implant (and not even the "good" kind of implant [think breast], but a fake tooth screwed into the empty socket that once held a piece of me). The worst part about the last one is that it regards a tooth that this same dentist performed a root canal on about 2 years ago. I haven't done anything different in association with my teeth, so the only thing that I can think of is that this is a result of the work done 2 years ago.

Total bill: $8,515.00

Like I stated in the title, A New Car!

  ¶ 1:25 PM