I know a lot of folks are wondering why I have had so many issues with my teeth; I've been told what I should and should not do about my few remaining teeth. The advice I get would be perfect for people with a normal history of parents who made them brush their teeth as children, or growing up having good-paying jobs or dental insurance, and so forth.
My parents never even suggested I brush my teeth when I was a child, and I remember once in about the fifth or sixth grade bragging to someone, "I don't have to brush my teeth." My dad had false teeth before I was born, and my mom got hers when she was around 40, I'm guessing. I wasn't worried about it.
By the time I was 13, I had plenty of bad teeth. We had moved to Kansas City, and both parents were working and making a little extra money. Mother decided to have all my teeth fixed. After school I would walk to the dentist, he'd work on my teeth, and my mother would pick me up when she got off work. Believe me, there were a lot of appointments! From then on, I brushed my teeth once or twice a day, although not very vigorously. I was a teenager by that time and realized people might like me better if I didn't have bad breath. Ha!
So, I still had cavities every once in awhile. However, once I was on my own I certainly didn't have the money to get the least little thing done to my teeth. When I started working at National Bellas Hess, a mail order firm, I was bringing home $35 a week, barely above the minimum wage at that time; I was paying for my apartment and buying food out of that amount.
When Cliff and I were married, we had no health insurance. We were young and bullet-proof, it seemed. We even had two babies, and paid our doctor and hospital bills off slowly but surely. Once in awhile we had to visit a doctor, especially with the children. If we didn't have the money at the time, I borrowed it from my parents and paid them back a little at a time (yes, we really did pay them back). Meanwhile, by the way, we were living a wonderful life on the farm.
Cliff worked at a family-owned butcher shop in the late 60's and 70's. His boss was, and still is, a wonderful person. At some point he decided he should pay for his employees' dental bills; I'm sure he was thinking of the cost of teeth-cleaning and mild decay, which would apply to most people, I imagine.
Well, by this time my teeth had a lot of problems again and I was going to need some root canals and even some teeth pulled. That would have been enough for Cliff's boss to realize he'd made a horrible mistake, but this dentist decided to do things up even bigger! He decided to do three bridges in addition to the other work that was needed.
When the boss got that bill, he decided not to pay everybody's dental work any more, and I didn't blame him.
The dentist impressed on me the fact that I must floss my teeth, and from then on, I did.
Bridges don't last forever. One of the teeth holding one end of a bridge broke off, so that bridge was gone. There was a similar problem with another bridge later on. Also, I've been told bridgework isn't supposed to last forever, and I had mine done almost forty years ago. The bridgework on the bottom teeth is gone, and several years ago, I got a partial in order to be able to chew anything. I will be 79 in July, so I cannot see the reason I should go in debt to have implanted teeth.
Now that I've gone to the right dentist, I don't have to worry about that. The two teeth he will be pulling were root canals that have failed over time, so there's no "doing a root canal" now. The dentist will send my partial off, add teeth where they are needed, and I will be able to chew again.
I hope this explains what's going on to my readers. I really do accept the fact that these problems are the result of my wrong choices... not brushing my teeth as often or as diligently as I should have.
George Jones said it best.
Dental work IS expensive so I completely understand. Growing up with a dentist grandfather, I had the opposite problem--lots of pressure to floss, brush and stay away from sugared gum, candies and soda. Anything sugary that stayed on the teeth for a long period of time was anathema to grandpa. Thanks to that and fluoride, I've never had a cavity. It sounds like this new dentist is going to make the situation work by being a creative problem solver. YAY for that!!
ReplyDeleteLarry loved George Jones.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked for the Caney dentists they had me take toothbrushes and floss and toothpaste to the grade school and distribute them to the kids and demonstrate for them how to care for their teeth. One of the dentists had a special operatory that I worked in to show adults how to care for their teeth. The dentist who trained me as a dental assistant taught me that I should show adults who were not taking care of their teeth and gums, how to do that..He just charged them $5.00 per session to sit through their lessons. The third dentist I worked for was extracting teeth for low income people and I suggested to him that he should do root canal instead of extracting teeth and let folks pay it out in payments. He took my advice well.. I told him if folks didn't pay regularly, he could write their work off on his income tax as a bad debt.. Most everyone paid it out that way though..After all we can't grow more teeth. Third molars were the only teeth we routinely extracted. They are way too far back in the mouth to be able to care for properly... . .
ReplyDeleteOnce a root canal fails, all you can do it pull it. So that's what I'm been up against.
DeleteI know this story all too well. I am looking at some very expensive dental care. The thing is that I DO take care of my teeth. I use a water pic twice daily and I brush with a Phillips Sonicare. However...if one avoids the dentist...
ReplyDelete