I hate visiting the dentist. I hate strangers sticking needles into my gums in particular. It therefore seems obvious to me to visit once every four or five years, when I’m in serious pain. If pain-killers still work, it’s not serious enough. If those nearest to me threaten to kidnap me and drag me to the dentist, it’s probably becoming a problem. If I’m sleeping on the couch so that my nocturnal amateur dental care doesn’t disturb others, it’s gone too far.
Dentists and other sensible people tend to regard this dental health strategy as tantamount to stupidity, but it’s *my* mouth. Besides, stupidity appears to be the defining characteristic of my approach to healthy living.
Possibly the biggest flaw in the plan, one that I’m aware of from the start but locate as far back in my mind as possible, is that dentist day *will* arrive. Today was that day. Well, it turns out that avoiding the inevitable probably isn’t the biggest flaw after all. The biggest flaw is sitting on the table in front of me, in the form of a work estimate for �1400 (about $2600).
I wonder how many co-codamol I could buy for that much?
P.S. For Andy C … I think I probably broke rules 1 and 2, but I’m going to try for all seven in one blog, one day.
I used to have a dentist that wanted everyone to have nice teeth – and huge debts “I can save your tooth but it will need titanium implants and a diamond tipped crown and will cost you £3000” My new dentist – “hmm I’ll take it out for £20, you won’t miss it” I like my new dentist, he’s honest
For a change, I actually asked her ‘what happens if I just want that one out, instead?’. It worked well, actually, and she admitted that they obviously tend towards tooth preservation (I’d be worried about a dentist who didn’t) but extraction was an option for a couple of them (in addition to the 4 that will be coming out anyway!!). I now know the price of a tooth – several hundred pounds each if they’re in a bad state. That’s probably reasonable for a life-long nugget of my anatomy but gadgets are becoming so much cheaper these days that I have to wonder …. 😉
Financial decisions about your mouth. Whatever next?
I went to a dentist once.
‘Any problems with your teeth, Sir ?’
‘No. Fine. Thank you’
He then cut a hole at the junction of front teeth and my receding gums and promptly filled it. Two weeks later, the filling fell out and I was forced to return.
‘Any problems with your teeth, Sir ?’.
‘Only since I came to see you’
He gleefully repeated the process (free of charge) and I haven’t been back since.
What a coincidence, I took off Tuesday to take my five-year-old to the dentist. At least they didn’t have to put him in the Papoose device, like last month when Laurie took him for the first half of the procedure. For some reason, the kids are more calm with me for any unsettling event – so now I get stuck with all the bad ones.
Someday I’ll learn how to pretend to be incompetent at disagreeable things. Whether it’s dying cats or messed up db’s I always get stuck cleaning things up.
“Someday I’ll learn how to pretend to be incompetent at disagreeable things.”
Ah, the age-old male strategy 😉