First of all, I'll share my friend Anita's message about how the pancake recipe and video went down. As soon as she received the recipe and video, she thanked me. "Wonderful wonderful I thank you so much. It’s very nice to hear you guys' voices. That’s really good." (She meant the video, I assume).
The next day, I got this: "I made the pancakes last night for Donnie when he came home from work. He said they were perfect. He actually ate 4, so thank you for helping me make good pancakes."
If you missed that entry, you'll find it HERE.
Now for the main reason I'm happy. I've had trouble getting a dentist to do anything about my teeth that wouldn't put us in debt for years. Oh, there was that one place, a chain group of dentists all across the country. It was staffed by very young people who were perfectly willing to pull all my teeth, which I really felt was necessary anyhow. However, because of the way they did things, something didn't feel right about the whole place, and I fled without losing any money. When I got home and looked them up, I saw a lot of people complaining about their services. That was two years ago. A young dentist at a reputable place had fixed the teeth he could a year before that, but there were a couple of bad teeth that were too far gone for him to do anything affordable for me.
Cliff has a dentist he absolutely swears by just eight miles from us in Odessa; he is on our Medicare Advantage program. We can have our teeth checked twice a year, plus they gave us each a debit card for $1,000 we can use for dental, glasses, or hearing aids. I was just certain that dentist would insist on doing implants or something, but I was wrong.
I knew there were two bottom molars that would have to come out, on the right side. I have a partial plate for my bottom teeth, and was pretty sure that with those two teeth gone, I wouldn't be able to use the partial plate any more, but one has to do what's necessary.
Bless that dentist's heart, he came in telling me those teeth would have to be pulled, but that he's pretty sure he can send the partial away to be fixed so it would still work for me! Oh, we'll owe some money, but there's still $750 on that debit card from our insurance; that will help greatly. And now I know how stupid I was not to go to Cliff's dentist!
I received an email from his office asking me to provide feedback for him, so I gave him all five stars, plus leaving these few words, now featured at the top of all their reviews:
I'm pretty sure the chain dentist place you are referring to is the same one I took my MIL to many years ago. After a 2 minute "free" consultation, it was off to the desk where they were discussing how much I wanted to prepay for a procedure they wanted to schedule months out. Like you, I got out of there as fast as I could and went to a local dentist, who consultation said she could keep all her teeth without any issues. More than a decade later, she still has the same teeth the chain place wanted to yank!
ReplyDeleteThat's great news! I've been spoiled by first having my grandfather as my dentist and then a reputable place where I've been going for decades. There seem to be many scammy dentists out there these days. Glad you finally listened to Cliff!
ReplyDeleteMy husband is learning the hard way that he needs to take care of his teeth. He wouldn't see a dentist for 39 years and had to last year to get his hip replaced. He had 14 cavities and needs a crown. I'm glad you found someone to help you out.
ReplyDeleteI went to dentists from time to time and got some work done, but I was too lazy to brush my teeth religiously at least two or three times a day. Just seemed like so much bother, so I did it once a day, in the morning. I didn't make good choices. It's nobody's fault but mine.
DeleteWhen I was younger I went to the dentist regularly because the checkups were covered by insurance, and I figured it was the way to get my money's worth. Now I'm trained to go twice a year.
ReplyDeleteWe never had medical insurance until we were in our 40's, and never much dental coverage. We lived from week to week and hoped for the best.
DeleteI worked as a chairside dental assistant for 12 years for three different dentists and taking out any teeth was only an option if they were well beyond any repair. You probably know this already but the teeth that are below the ones you are about to loose will extrude up into the bite where you have lost those upper teeth (if they are upper teeth you lose) or if they are lower teeth you lose the upper ones above the ones those you lose will extrude up into the space made by the extractions. often causes a change in the bite that can cause all kinds of problems.
ReplyDeleteAnd, again, this is not Anonymous...it is Margie from Margie's Musings
ReplyDeleteAnd flossing between the teeth and under the gums is every bit as important as brushing ! Again...this is Margie
ReplyDeleteI know that now. That doesn't fix the teeth that were always bad, and the ones that were pulled through the years. I trust this dentist; Cliff has gone to him for years. I will do what he thinks best. At least he didn't try to tell me to get implants that cost thousands of dollars PER TOOTH.
DeleteI hope this works for you. I had very bad teeth and had them all removed years ago. I don’t know why my teeth were so poor as we had milk galore. I think it may have been a lack of fruit, vitamin C. Fingers crossed for you.
ReplyDeleteThey can add other teeth to my partial I've had for 10 years or more; I asked that before I got the partial. Also, we could afford a new partial if that were necessary. They aren't cheap, but we do have a little money put by. I will only have 5 real teeth on the bottom if that works.
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