Miscelaneous Love and Dental Woes
It always amazes me when I hear from friends that they wonder where I've been. Why is that, do you suppose? I guess it doesn't occur to me to assume my friends are thinking about me, but it makes me so glad to know they are! Goh and Noriko and Si, I'm talking to you here. Thank you. You fill me with such joy.
Yesterday I went to the dentist for the first time in five years. I knew my teeth were bad. I knew the toothaches were a bad sign. I knew I had a bunch of fillings that were old and about to fall out, that I had two broken teeth and four more cracked ones. I knew that pretty much every one of my 24 teeth (I've had 8 removed because my teeth were too big for my jaw) has had dental work done on it. I knew it was going to be bad news. But...
Now I have been told that I need two root canals immediately (on the broken teeth) and probably two more pending on the other cracked teeth. That I need crowns on all the cracked teeth, and probably on several other teeth. This dentist, whom I hadn't been to before, said she thought my teeth were so demineralized that I ought to get them all crowned. I guess that's like getting caps for movie stars. It would certainly give me a much prettier smile, to have white, even teeth, instead of greyish broken ones.
But OMG the money.
For the two root canals and crowns, we are talking $3995. That's with a discount. And she said she'd do the whole mouth restoration project for $20,000. When you multiply it out, that's actually a very nice discount, given that crowns tend to run $1200 apiece or so, and there are also a bunch of cavities that need to be drilled out.
But we're talking the price of a new car. Without financing.
I don't have dental insurance.
On the other hand, I don't want dentures. And I don't want this ache in my jaw to get worse, or the damaged roots to get infected and seed to my sinuses or bones. I'm gonna go see another dentist and get a second opinion. Then I might start looking into whether I should go get my dental work done elsewhere, although from talking to my mom, crowns in Nashville cost as much as they do here.
Anyway, I knew it was coming. And I do have the money in savings, it just puts a BIG hole in my savings. Even bigger than the holes in my teeth.
But if I let it go even longer, that just makes it worse, right?
I need to get that second opinion.
Any of you ever had a root canal? How bad does it hurt?
I think I'm finally starting to kick the sinus infection. Maybe. And finally starting to feel a little like I want to be talking to people again. I have Japanese class tonight, and spent a couple hours on the homework today. I'm seriously struggling with the conjugation of verbs, in particular the verb "naru" to become. You use it like this.
漢字がむずかしくなりました。
Kanji became difficult.
But what I want is to say "Kanji became difficult but interesting." Which erquires me to use the -te form of naru, which I have no idea how to conjugate.
漢字がむずかしなりて、おもしろくなりました。
Except that's wrong. I have no idea how to do this. Help!
I have to say, of the two books I've used, Genki, and Japanese for Busy People, Genki wins hands down for clarity of instruction. With Japanese for Busy People I'm just flailing and floundering and never learning any principles underlying things at all. Ugh. I guess I should go back to taking classes at College of San Mateo, since they use a book I like better.
Yesterday I went to the dentist for the first time in five years. I knew my teeth were bad. I knew the toothaches were a bad sign. I knew I had a bunch of fillings that were old and about to fall out, that I had two broken teeth and four more cracked ones. I knew that pretty much every one of my 24 teeth (I've had 8 removed because my teeth were too big for my jaw) has had dental work done on it. I knew it was going to be bad news. But...
Now I have been told that I need two root canals immediately (on the broken teeth) and probably two more pending on the other cracked teeth. That I need crowns on all the cracked teeth, and probably on several other teeth. This dentist, whom I hadn't been to before, said she thought my teeth were so demineralized that I ought to get them all crowned. I guess that's like getting caps for movie stars. It would certainly give me a much prettier smile, to have white, even teeth, instead of greyish broken ones.
But OMG the money.
For the two root canals and crowns, we are talking $3995. That's with a discount. And she said she'd do the whole mouth restoration project for $20,000. When you multiply it out, that's actually a very nice discount, given that crowns tend to run $1200 apiece or so, and there are also a bunch of cavities that need to be drilled out.
But we're talking the price of a new car. Without financing.
I don't have dental insurance.
On the other hand, I don't want dentures. And I don't want this ache in my jaw to get worse, or the damaged roots to get infected and seed to my sinuses or bones. I'm gonna go see another dentist and get a second opinion. Then I might start looking into whether I should go get my dental work done elsewhere, although from talking to my mom, crowns in Nashville cost as much as they do here.
Anyway, I knew it was coming. And I do have the money in savings, it just puts a BIG hole in my savings. Even bigger than the holes in my teeth.
But if I let it go even longer, that just makes it worse, right?
I need to get that second opinion.
Any of you ever had a root canal? How bad does it hurt?
I think I'm finally starting to kick the sinus infection. Maybe. And finally starting to feel a little like I want to be talking to people again. I have Japanese class tonight, and spent a couple hours on the homework today. I'm seriously struggling with the conjugation of verbs, in particular the verb "naru" to become. You use it like this.
漢字がむずかしくなりました。
Kanji became difficult.
But what I want is to say "Kanji became difficult but interesting." Which erquires me to use the -te form of naru, which I have no idea how to conjugate.
漢字がむずかしなりて、おもしろくなりました。
Except that's wrong. I have no idea how to do this. Help!
I have to say, of the two books I've used, Genki, and Japanese for Busy People, Genki wins hands down for clarity of instruction. With Japanese for Busy People I'm just flailing and floundering and never learning any principles underlying things at all. Ugh. I guess I should go back to taking classes at College of San Mateo, since they use a book I like better.