My $3500 Lesson...

If you've read my blog for any real length of time then you probably already know that I'm not a fan of doctors and the like. So it might not shock you to know that dentist fall into that category. My "lesson" (it seems to be a bit easier to swallow if it's called that, or maybe a lot harder, not totally sure which) started just about a year ago. I went in for my first cleaning in a while (on a side note, cleanings are totally different than other dental treatments, I really like them) because I just found a dentist that my new dental insurance covered since we had moved to Florida. It wasn't too bad of news, at least for me. See I tend to have pretty week teeth, I don't think one of my baby teeth came out without a filling in it and I'm pretty sure all my molars and a few other teeth currently have fillings in them. So the news was that I had one tooth that needed a filling, nothing huge, but something that should be taken care of. With our insurance the filling was going to cost us around $300. That might not seem like a ton to most people, but I was a couple of months pregnant with Noah at the time so money was kinda tight. I was planning on getting it done when we had an extra $300 or so sitting around (yeah, like that was ever going to happen - Jeff and my theory on money is more like if we have it spend it, saving doesn't seem to work all that great, but we're working on it) but with the pregnancy and birth and everything else that's been happening with my life I somehow forgot it - imagine that, me forgetting something.... So after about a year I went in for my cleaning. Yeah, I know you're supposed to get that done every six months but really, for like six months I kept saying that I'll call later, or when the kids are napping, or fill in the excuse here and it just didn't happen. So anyway, I went in for my cleaning and discovered a very sad and horrible lesson - Palm Beach Gardens DOESN'T PUT FLUORIDE IN THEIR WATER!!!! This may not mean a ton to a lot of people again, but when you have crappy teeth to start with, no fluoride is huge. My teeth basically said "I don't care how much brushing and flossing you do, I'm gonna ROTE!!!! Hahahahahahhahahahaha (evil laugh here)"

Now I take pretty good care of my teeth, only on the rare (and I mean rare) occasion do I miss brushing my teeth both in the morning and at night. And my flossing isn't terrible either. Okay, that's pretty much a bold faced lie, at least the flossing part, the brushing part is totally true. So I'm not the greatest flosser in the world, at least I wasn't, but I am now. So maybe I was the person who looked at the calendar a week ahead of time and noticed that I had a dentist appointment coming up and freaked out. I would make sure that I flossed my teeth at least four days ahead of time and then only for two days because if I flossed too close to my appointment my gums were going to be totally swollen and bleeding and then the dentist would really know that I'm a terrible flosser, like they totally were going to be fooled by that, but it was my hope.

Anyways, at this last cleaning I learned my fate and discovered that I had a ton of cavities that needed to be filled. Oh and the one that was only going to cost me around $300 to get fixed, it turned out that by waiting for a year it now needed a root canal. Ya, that totally sucks! I could have had a nice little filling, but now I had to have a root canal! (On another side note: I seem to have a high tolerance for pain, at least in my teeth, because I totally had like no pain in that tooth, or any of the others for that matter. And wow, did that last part ever sound like a "valley girl" impression or what?!) So last week I went and had the root canal done. The actual procedure wasn't that bad and didn't hurt to much. But up until yesterday I was basically popping 3-4 ibuprofen every 6 or so hours just so that I could close my mouth normally. If I bit down just wrong I was in intense pain for the next 15-30 minutes and I'm not sure it ever really settled down. Finally this morning I noticed that it wasn't hurting quite so much, thankfully. Then I went in to get my crown work done (at least the temporary part, I still have to go back in three weeks to get the proper thing done). That was an interesting experience, but yeah for not needing any anesthesia. Shots and me aren't the greatest of friends, but then again, who is. So after getting that done I came home excited that I could finally eat on my preferred side, that was until I bit down and discovered that the pain was still intense when food came in contact with the tooth - is that normal? The other side of my jaw is starting to get really tired of doing all the chewing so hopefully soon I'll be back to normal.

Oh, and aren't I lucky, the root canal/crown is only like part one of three or so different treatments that I have to get done. Next week I go back in to get three or four (I just don't remember) more fillings done and then I'll have to go back again at least one more time for at least one more. Wow, that's some pretty good business I'm giving my dentist. I'm starting to think their might be some sort of conspiracy going on between the local dentists and the city - the dentist pay off the city to not put Fluoride in their water so that the dentist, in return, can have more patients needing dental work. I'm really thinking someone might have to look into this.

Anyways, I have now learned my lesson... get dental work done asap even if you don't have the money and have to put it on credit - even if it takes you like 5 years to pay off it's still going to end up being cheaper and a lot less painful than waiting and having to have major dental craziness happening.

Lesson Learned!