Why is it that a pit stop at the dentist’s office is more bother than a pit stop at the garage?
OK, dumb question. I just need to whine a bit . . .
There I was today having my teeth picked at and scraped by the dental hygienist, and I found myself wishing I was in the waiting room of my Honda dealership, drinking some of their free coffee.
Of course, taking my car in for service usually costs a lot more than having my teeth cleaned, especially because I have a company insurance plan that paid for the session at the dentist’s office.
Sadly, the company does not offer a plan to cover our car repairs. (Why is that, she wonders?)
Anyway, sometimes I think dental cleanings are a total ripoff. The real purpose of being there is for the exam by the dentist after the hygienist is through with you: he usually finds a tooth or two that need work.
But today he didn’t find any problems.
It can’t be easy being a dental hygienist or a dentist — having your fingers in people’s mouths all day, and making them moan and groan. I once read that dentists have a higher rate of suicide than people in most other professions.
Dentists — if not hygienists — are people most of us don’t want to visit, unless we have a toothache. Then we can’t wait to see them . . . and isn’t it nice that most dentists will squeeze you in when you have an emergency?
Good lord . . . I can’t believe how much I just wrote after getting my teeth cleaned. But there are no fancy pictures to add to the post, as there was on my last visit to the Honda dealership where I was sorely tempted to buy a red convertible Mustang muscle car in the used-car lot there.
Cheers
— Jillian
Jillian Page 
I mentioned this movie, and this part of it, to my dentist once. That man has NO sense of humor! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtMizMQ6oM
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While dentists have one hand in your mouth, the other is in your wallet. One dentist, no, make that dental-hygienist, because she never even saw the dentist, tried to convince my 81 year-old mother that she needed $1000 worth of “extra services”. Her teeth have lasted her this long, so surely they will last another ten or so years. She really couldn’t afford those “extra services” anyway.
Ten or so years ago, my wife, who had a mouth-full of rotten teeth, decided that she needed to get them all taken out and get dentures. She had dental insurance, but a dentist on her plan wanted $2750 CO-PAY, besides the outlandish fee he was going to charge her insurance. An oral surgeon, who we had met THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS, BECAUSE HE WAS THE ONLY PROVIDER EVEN OPEN, charged her $2000 cash. He gave her that “la-la-land shot”, and an hour later, her rotten teeth were history. Four years ago, I sat in that same chair, and the best oral surgeon in Citrus County Florida removed all of mine also. No more “pit-stops” at a dentist’s office for me.
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It is always interesting to hear about healthcare and dentistry costs on your side of the Atlantic.
I have just returned from my hygienist appointment at an all girl practice where the atmosphere is like a party and the treatment flawless. It is a shame that for so much of the time it is obviously difficult to join in…
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Isn’t it amazing that most health care providers in the US (including Medicare) don’t consider dental health and eye care to be medical conditions medical conditions? Those are different coverages paid for separately.
Many years of transporting disabled people taught me that though they may be housed well, have 24 hour attendants, free transportation and medical care, there is no option for dental or eye care.
Some of these poor folks lived in pretty decent places and were well cared for, yet their rotten teeth smelled so foul (like a rotting corpse) that the van’s windows had to be open in mid-winter lest the driver (me) vomit all over the dashboard.
That’s just not right. ‘Overweight’ can be a legal disability but a mouth full of rotting teeth is not. You aren’t covered for eye care until you’re blind! Stupid.
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The UK now only has minimal dental care covered under the national health care system and finding a dentist who will work under their conditions of pay is almost impossible now and not all costs are covered unless you already qualify for other government benefits… Eye tests are covered but not the glasses and they seem to get more expensive faster than inflation.
Strange how oral and optic health is not a health matter…
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