Dentist Appt

[unicornduke]

 Got a temporary crown put on one of my teeth, two weeks until the permanent one gets put on. They made the casts by putting this purple shit in my mouth and it mostly dried in two or three minutes but it had the weirdest taste that was similar to something I knew. Maybe silicone? I don't know. I'm kinda scared that the temp crown is going to pop off, the nurse said it was a possibility and they could just put it back on no problem. She also said it might be sore and it definitely is now. I'm eating creamed corn for dinner :P

Next appointment will hopefully be my last dentist appointment for a while (until my next cleaning in October sobs), but all major dentistry work should be done. That's what I get for not going to the dentist for three years and having cavity susceptible teeth. I don't know why dentist appointments are so terrible now, they were really just fine when I was a kid. Maybe we just had a really amazing dentist when I was little.  

Anyway. Five cavities and a crown is plenty to deal with and I'm pretty ready to be done. The last one was on my last molar on the top and it was just really really sore for weeks because the dentist apparently had to adjust something and caused some trauma. It's fine now, I gave it a long break. 

Fucking teeth

Comments

[graydon]

The magic google phrase (at least hereabouts) is "pain-free dentistry".

That's a lot; I hope it stays over with a good long while.

[unicornduke]

Oh, I'll have to check it out. The only issue might be insurance and who will accept it. I've got (free) dental insurance through work but not a ton of offices around here will take it and it won't reimburse much done out of network but it might be worth paying some for less pain all around. ~our health system is barbaric~~~

[graydon]

Oh, gah, yeah, that is barbaric.

Dentistry is not part of the single-payer system in Ontario and it really intensely doesn't want to be (it should be, but never mind); that means there's a set of standard procedure prices and insurance is interchangeable because it's per-procedure rather than per-provider. (Per-provider's actually unlawful.)

Still some pretty awful dental technicians in circulation. I got really lucky when I moved cities last-year-and-a-bit ago, because I went from an excellent dentist to a better dentist by sheer dumb luck. ("this one is close, has good ratings...")

[unicornduke]

Yeah, bad dentists, doing some cursory research on the internet tells me that my previous dentist put in metal fillings which are worse on the teeth generally, especially weaker teeth which is why both of the metal fillings failed within three years and both have been replaced by current dentist, one to this crown :|

that previous dentist also made cleanings painful enough that I nearly cried. Which is why when things got busy at work, I just said I'd call back to reschedule and then....never did. And it took me over a year to get this new dentist after I moved here.

So all-in-all, current dentist is much better but all around I'm having zero fun.

But yeah, I'm actually having a weird thing happen with the insurance, where the practice is billing the insurance and the insurance says they're only paying part of it (because things are horrible~~~) but the practice says I don't actually owe them any money because the insurance is covering everything. So I've payed no money for any of the procedures and I don't intend to alert anyone to this fact (I have a chunk of money in a health savings account from my previous job so it's fine if it does happen all at once). It's just, I have no idea on anything and it is all confusing.

That is good that it is standard pricing! At least you know what it will cost you up front.

[graydon]

Oh, gah, that's awful and I'm sorry you got subjected to it.

Cleaning shouldn't hurt at all.

The insurance will probably send you a bill eventually.

The way mine works it that the dentist has the info for the insurance provider, the provider covers whatever they cover (it's through work and not 100% coverage), and I pay the difference. For a cleaning it's under 50 CAD. So I'm never perfectly sure what it will be but even the minor surgery was under 400 CAD out of pocket.

[oracne]

Ugh I hate that purple stuff. It feels alien.

[unicornduke]

I know right???? It was SO weird. I was like, I really shouldn't inhale this shit even though it's all in my mouth, that would be Very Bad. I still can't figure out what it tasted like.