Dentist Hate and Dentist Love
Some of you have been around these parts long enough to remember the Dental Drama of 2005, which is best summarized in one paragraph taken from a post made that June:
Dear My Dentist: OMG YOU SUCK SO HARD
I cannot believe I'm posting yet again about my teeth. That same freaking inlay. The one that was put in in November, broke in March, got fixed, chipped without gaping holes in May? Yes, that's the one. Fucking broke again while I was eating my dinner tonight. Same spot she "fixed" in March. I called the office and got yet another office drone with an IQ around room temperature who reluctantly supposed she could squeeze me in on Tuesday sometime. That's four days from now. Four. I have a hole in my tooth. A big, sharp hole. Granted, it does not seem to be tapping into any exposed nerves or anything, but HELLO? The least you could do is express a tiny bit of concern or possibly pretend that you might understand why I consider this to be fairly urgent.
Let's not forget that, along the way, the office's administrative folk messed up my insurance, told me they'd take care of it, and then DIDN'T and came after me for another sum because they'd misfiled my claim. So that six month's worth of dental hell cost me upwards of $1300.
I was chewing gum on my flight home last week, and the big inlay on my bottom molar lifted right up. Not all the way out, just out of its seat. So, dentist. And no way in hell was I going back to that butcher's shop. Found a new dentist in my neighborhood, read a couple of reviews, made an appointment.
The good news: I love my new dentist. He explained everything really clearly, was super gentle, was funny and approachable without being weird, and went over all my options very thoroughly. Also, despite not having had my teeth cleaned in a year and a half, he says I have almost no tartar build-up and my gums are in great shape. My old-old dentist, Dr. Hata, Jr? Did freaking amazing work. All the silver fillings he put in are in perfect condition.
The bad news: Yep, that inlay's gonna have to come out. And the other one the old dentist did, which hasn't bothered me at all? Decay all over the place underneath it, so it's gonna have to come out, too. The other bad news is that some insurance companies will only cover a certain number of some procedures in a given timespan--like how you only get new frames for your glasses every two years. So there's a possibility that I'll get no insurance coverage on these two replacements, because they've already paid (though, only just barely, see above, re: $1300) out on these two teeth within the last two years. The rework here will run me right around $650 if the insurance doesn't cover anything.
So. Bleh. There is dentist hate, but there is also dentist love. To reflect that, I believe I'll call Signature Smiles and tell them to cough up my records and btw, they suck. And then I think I'll write Dr. Hata, Jr. a nice thank-you note.
Oh. One last thing, because it's crucially important. New dentist has this laser thing he uses to detect decay. And when it went off on those two teeth, it sounded EXACTLY like Dean's EMF. He had to back off to let me finish laughing about it.
Dear My Dentist: OMG YOU SUCK SO HARD
I cannot believe I'm posting yet again about my teeth. That same freaking inlay. The one that was put in in November, broke in March, got fixed, chipped without gaping holes in May? Yes, that's the one. Fucking broke again while I was eating my dinner tonight. Same spot she "fixed" in March. I called the office and got yet another office drone with an IQ around room temperature who reluctantly supposed she could squeeze me in on Tuesday sometime. That's four days from now. Four. I have a hole in my tooth. A big, sharp hole. Granted, it does not seem to be tapping into any exposed nerves or anything, but HELLO? The least you could do is express a tiny bit of concern or possibly pretend that you might understand why I consider this to be fairly urgent.
Let's not forget that, along the way, the office's administrative folk messed up my insurance, told me they'd take care of it, and then DIDN'T and came after me for another sum because they'd misfiled my claim. So that six month's worth of dental hell cost me upwards of $1300.
I was chewing gum on my flight home last week, and the big inlay on my bottom molar lifted right up. Not all the way out, just out of its seat. So, dentist. And no way in hell was I going back to that butcher's shop. Found a new dentist in my neighborhood, read a couple of reviews, made an appointment.
The good news: I love my new dentist. He explained everything really clearly, was super gentle, was funny and approachable without being weird, and went over all my options very thoroughly. Also, despite not having had my teeth cleaned in a year and a half, he says I have almost no tartar build-up and my gums are in great shape. My old-old dentist, Dr. Hata, Jr? Did freaking amazing work. All the silver fillings he put in are in perfect condition.
The bad news: Yep, that inlay's gonna have to come out. And the other one the old dentist did, which hasn't bothered me at all? Decay all over the place underneath it, so it's gonna have to come out, too. The other bad news is that some insurance companies will only cover a certain number of some procedures in a given timespan--like how you only get new frames for your glasses every two years. So there's a possibility that I'll get no insurance coverage on these two replacements, because they've already paid (though, only just barely, see above, re: $1300) out on these two teeth within the last two years. The rework here will run me right around $650 if the insurance doesn't cover anything.
So. Bleh. There is dentist hate, but there is also dentist love. To reflect that, I believe I'll call Signature Smiles and tell them to cough up my records and btw, they suck. And then I think I'll write Dr. Hata, Jr. a nice thank-you note.
Oh. One last thing, because it's crucially important. New dentist has this laser thing he uses to detect decay. And when it went off on those two teeth, it sounded EXACTLY like Dean's EMF. He had to back off to let me finish laughing about it.