Dentists

Do you dislike going to the dentist as much as I?  

Many years ago I had a wonderful dentist, but in the late 1990s he had back surgery and found it too painful to continue working so sold his practice.  I'd gone to him for probably 15 years or more.  I didn't care for the new dentist-owner, and wanted to find one closer to home so switched to one nearby that a friend referred me to.

She was alright but after a couple years I needed a root canal and she was a bit aggressive and managed to break the tip of one of the tools deep into the canal...after extensive efforts by her and another specialist she referred me to, neither were able to extract the tip of the tool so it is entombed in my tooth's canal forever.  This ordeal was very off-putting and little or no discounts/compensation were ever given for having to endure the consequences, pain, and time involved in the process.  I know things can happen, but this was very traumatic.

I think I went back to her just once after that and was just not feeling the love, so decided to change dentists.  I was referred by an old acquaintance (reconnected on Facebook) who would travel over an hour to get to her dentist in my area because she felt he was the best.  Ironically, his office is in the same building, diagonally one door away from the lady dentist.  I have been very happy with him.  He is patient, uses far more of the latest & greatest tools, etc.  He explains exactly what he's doing all during the process.  And he plays 1960s music over the speaker system.  I'm just afraid he'll retire and I'll have to find yet another dentist.  He's just a couple years younger than I am.

Today's visit was my bi-annual cleaning, x-rays and general check-up.  I had been in a couple months ago for a replacement filling that went very well.  This time, it seems that a very old crown should be replaced.  Not that the crown itself is failing, but given its age (it was put on by that first dentist back in the late 1970s or early 1980s and had popped off once since then needing to be reseated) there's a gap at the edge of the crown where it covers the remaining part of the tooth at the gum, and he thinks it would be best to replace it with one that sits much lower to the gum, so that will be done on Wednesday morning.  

What's bothering me at this point is less about replacing the crown - I know they don't last forever but why are they so blasted expensive??   I have insurance that covers just over half but the half out of my pocket is almost as much as what we pay for a year's worth of property insurance.  And property insurance is due in a couple weeks...and Christmas is coming...it's the costliest time of year.  

As I was driving home, I was thinking how nice it would be to just be able to go to the dentist and have my two cleanings per year and be told "all is well, see you in six months".  Maybe I'm just at the age where dentists, doctors and insurance companies get more of my money than anyone else :/