A couple of weeks ago I chipped a little piece off a lower front tooth. The piece was wedged in there so I called the dentist. My regular dentist, the grumpy old guy, wasn’t there, but his new associate was, so I went to see her. She was nice, gentle but expensive. Her assistant noticed I had a broken lower tooth and I said yeah, it broke a few years ago, but I’d just like to build it up, but old grumpy man wants to do crowns and drilling and no way! But she said to ask the female dentist and she said yes, she could build it up, but then said she’d remove the old filling. Ick, but ok. She then said I had a temporary in the tooth behind it (must be at least 20 years old) and wanted to do that tooth at the same time, since I’d be numb.
Double ick, but ok.
Today was the day and I was a nervous wreck. My last experience with a filling was not good. I can’t have Novocaine, I need something without Epinephrine in it, and they often have issues numbing me.
I walked in and said 1 tooth, not 2. I can’t deal with 2 being done today, I’m too nervous. She agreed but wasn’t very happy.
Nervous as hell, blood pressure was very high. Needle didn’t hurt much, they leave me for half an hour to numb up, then begin drilling. It’s ok for 30 seconds then OW. So, shot #2 and then wait 20 minutes. Drill a bit then OW OW. So, shot #3 and by this time I’m feeling pretty damned anxious as it’s now hurt, I’ve now had 3 damned shots, I’m tired of lying down in this friggin’ chair … you get the picture?
She begins slowly drilling and hit one spot and I jumped up pretty high. At this point we discussed just patching it, building up the broken piece, and saying buh-bye. She then gave me the 4th shot which, of course, I didn’t feel. 10 minutes later she feels my lip and it’s not numb, just tingly, but another 10 minutes and she asks if I can feel it, and I can’t feel a thing. Woo hoo. I’ve now been in the chair 105 minutes, I have to pee, my neck hurts, my jaw is aching, the damned dental dam is making it hard to breathe, and I just want OUT.
She begins drilling and I feel nothing. Not a twinge. And she just keeps on drilling and said she was racing against time before it all wore off. She was just about done and I asked if the other tooth had a deep, big filling and she said it was smaller than this one, so I said go for it, and she began drilling that one. No pain. WOO HOO!!
She builds up one with amalgam, then bonds over it, then does the second one and builds up the side with the broken piece. Some more drilling, smooth, fiddling and then, 130 minutes after it began, I can leave. I go to get up and am dizzy as hell from lying there I guess. Spent a few minutes just vegging until I felt well enough to leave.
The girl at the desk reminds me I owe $95 for the recent cleaning in February and I reminded her I don’t have a bill since they don’t send it to my PO Box, they send it elsewhere, and I don’t get it. She says I owe $235 (I think) for the recent filling. A little chip was that much? I tell her to send it to the PO Box and I’ll pay it all at once.
The kicker of this all? $550 for today. FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS FOR TWO FILLINGS. I realize I was there 2 hours, I realize it took 4 vials of Lydocaine, I realize she has college loans to pay, I realize they have a high rent office, but c’mon, that’s a LOT of money for someone who is cheap like me!!
I still have one tooth to have done but need time to recover from this and then I’ll do it. But now I understand why people ignore their dental health. Sure, I could go to a walk-in type dental place that would charge me $50 for a cleaning and probably $70 for a filling. They’d be in a strip mall with low rent, cheap carpeting, cheap equipment, etc.
My dentist uses top-of-the-line stuff including a computer setup like you’d not believe. X-rays are done and in 3 seconds are up on the computer screen for you to see, and it amazes me to see this. Appointments are done via computer and it prints out on a cute little card. The gloves they wear are bright purple and thicker. All equipment is new, they sterilize everything carefully, and they don’t use those spit sinks, instead they use this long suction hose thingie. Hell, the toilet paper in the bathroom is nice and thick, not that cheap stuff!!
You get what you pay for. And you should never skimp on health care. But with our economy the way it is, I can see people preferring to put food on their table instead of having their teeth cleaned.