Yesterday was a day I've been dreading...I knew it had to come but I really had to force myself to not chicken out and go to the dentist.  My teeth haven't been hurting, just feeling strange.
Candice has inherited my bad teeth and was looking for a new dentist too.  Curtis told her about the one he has gone to for many years and really liked, so she went and had a check up with this dentist.  She had nothing but nice things to say about him so I gave them a call.  The receptionist was super nice and got me in about a week after I called.
I'm usually pretty reasonable about things  like this...you know, if you have a problem, just go get it taken care of.  But after the experience I had last time I went to see Dave M. I was feeling very paranoid.  Dave was really nice too, just super pricey for his work so I didn't want to go back to him.  Yeah, I went in to see Dave with a pretty bad tooth ache and when he looked at it, he said he just couldn't save it and pulled it out!  Ahhhhh  I know I have really bad teeth, but I feel like maybe dentists are just going straight for the implant option now instead of trying to fix the tooth.
So after that visit, something clicked in my brain and I decided if I never went back to the dentist, then nothing like that would happen to me again. Smart, right?
Well I was going along pretty well, but then this tooth in the back started to feel strange...like it was weak and it could break if I bit on it.  I knew it wasn't going to get any better, so I called the dentist.
They were very nice and personable in the dentist office.  The assistant took a whole head of x rays, and set them up for Dr. C to look at.  He came in  and said hello to me, then sat down and just stared at the pictures.  Then he started asking me questions like "are you taking any medications on a regular basis?" "have you had a trauma to your head lately?" and the best one ( and he was super sensitive and kind and even reached over and touched my hand when he asked this...) "are you bulimic?"  I'm like "what n the heck is going on in these x-rays?"
I have to say it's a bit unnerving when the doctor says " I"m perplexed"  Then he had me come over and look at the x-rays with him.  He was showing me some dark spots that were down at the bottom of the root of the tooth.  He said it looked like something called resorption.  That didn't sound good at all.  He explained that its where the root surface of the tooth is lost. Well great.  He asked me about my dental history and I laid it out there for him (took about 20 minutes)  Then he said he thought  that this was something I had no control over because he could see that I do everything possible to take good care of my teeth.  He said the only thing to do in this case was to get an implant.  Then he showed me where the same situation was happening on another tooth too and was quite puzzled that I wasn't having any pain. 
He told me he likes to have a periodontist do the implant so he would refer me to one he liked....oh and I need a root canal and crown on another tooth, oh and possibly needed to replace another crown that was failing.  I sure felt like crying but tried to be brave and keep it together.
So the assistant takes me out to the receptionist to have her check and see what our insurance would pay.  She called the insurance company and had them send a list of what they would pay  They faxed her a list.  She looked pretty distressed as she looked over the list.  Then she says, 'I can't believe this is all your insurance will pay"   She said it was ridiculously low.  So then she called them back and asked what they would pay on my specific problems. They told her that they would have to submit the bill, then they would let them know how much they would pay.  Ha!  She said they didn't have to tell her , but they would have to tell me, so she said for me to call them when I got home.  Oh man, I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on my teeth.
This was when I didn't hold it together anymore and had a little break down right there in the dentist office.  I'm not proud to say it's not the first time that's happened, but at least at Dr. L's office, they knew what I'd been through and weren't overly surprised when I had a melt down.
They were very sweet...Dr. C came out and gave me a hug and told me everything would be OK and he would fix my problems.. Oh dear.
So I guess I'll just start plugging through the process.  He gave me some toothpaste to try that should build up my enamel and make my teeth stronger.  I've got an appointment next week to see him again.
Kelley always makes me feel better. I love how he is very positive and is just like, "well we will just get you fixed...if the insurance won't help, we'll just pay for it...don't worry. Then he makes some jokes about it and gets me laughing again. What would I ever do without him.
Love my family...they were sympathetic and encouraging..things could be worse, right...Kellen's grandma had all her teeth pulled when she was 17!???   hmmmmm, that didn't make me feel way better, but I know it's true...things could be much worse. I'm grateful for the amazing technology we have now so they can fix my teeth!  I like to smile, so I would really hate to have to stop doing it!