Dentist

A loose crown put back in and a cavity filled.  Now my dental bill for the year was around $700.

Since my dentist is retiring and I think she is very good, I let her at my cavity-filling session talk me into a teeth cleaning and an oral exam.  Apparently these are basic necessities and neither had been done for years.

So I came in for a teeth cleaning, and now my bill for the year was over a thousand dollars.  The dental examination, which was very thorough with some spectacular pictures of breaking and decaying teeth for my viewing pleasure, sent my bill for the year to date rocketing towards two thousand dollars.

From the examination, my dentist identified a tooth that was badly cracked and needed a crown before it broke into pieces in the not-too-distant future.  She also wanted to pull out two old fillings and, if there were no surprises under them, refill them.

What's the old saw?  If it ain't broke, don't fix it?

Against my better judgment I made not one, not two, but three more dentist appointments, to shave one tooth and fit it for a crown, drill out two old fillings and refill them, and insert the permanent crown when it came back from the lab.  After several years of seeing my dentist two or three times every three or four years, I was going to be seeing a lot more of her in the not-too-distant future.