My trip to the dentist

I hate going to the dentist. Its a huge deal to me. Traumatic deal to me. Even taking the kids is trying. I finally found a wonderful dentist, walking distance, even. (plus he's a neighbor, lives two doors down) My husband's company was bought out by Symantec Corp, and in the merging they took on the other company's dental coverage. And we are back on Metlife, which is miserable. And our fabulous, close dentist is not on that plan. Its not that I don't appreciate having coverage, I do, but they are much more difficult to deal with for dentists, so few want to work with them. Thus, making finding a dentist difficult, at best. And their website is difficult to deal with, so I couldn't log in and find one. And their phone is a mess, you can't talk to a person unless you know some secret code.

Needless to say, we skipped the dentist visits for way too long. I finally found one that we can go to, 30 minutes away!

I take Kaytlin and Hope-Anne there because they both have toothaches. Kaytlin had a cavity on a baby tooth that the dentist didn't want to mess with because it was going to "fall out any day now." But it didn't. For 2 years. It just got worse and worse, until she tried some major mouth wash that crumbled her tooth! So we had to get it removed. She is 16, and still had that baby tooth. Why? Because the permanent tooth turned completely sideways and didn't push it out.

Do you know what that means? Braces, yes, but not just braces. Braces to open the space up. Then oral surgery to cut into her gums and put a metal brace on the tooth with a gold chain hanging out of her gums. Then another visit to the dentist to torture her by pulling the chain and winding it until the tooth comes down. This is not your standard braces wearing time frame, this is at LEAST 26 months. And how many mortgages on our home to pay for it????

Ok, so Donnie takes her for her ortho, so I didn't have to die from sticker shock or traumatize Kaytlin with all my questions to the ortho.

Now its time for the rest of the crew to get their cleanings. I made all 5 appointments together, they loved it and it was easier for me to make ONE trip that far. Drew didn't want to go, he had "work" to do, and the van decided not to work, so I had to take the car. Drew got to stay home so we would all fit.

All the way there I'm thinking: They are going to make me get my teeth cleaned in his place, I know it. Nope, I'm not doing it. (I'm getting a bit tense at this point)

Now you know what happened next, right?

I'm filling out paperwork for the kids and ME (now I'm a bit queasy), and Trinity goes back for her first ever visit, but they couldn't get the x-rays to work with her. She did great with the cleaning, but needs a pediatric dentist to get the x-rays and one cavity. I have pics I'll post another day.

Hope-Anne and Devon are next up. I know Devon is going to get an ortho visit because his baby tooth and permanent tooth are both in the same spot, so he'll need it pulled and something to bring the tooth in the right place. I'm not looking forward to that. Sure enough, ortho orders. How are we going to afford this?

Hope-Anne..... they gave me ortho orders for her, too!!! I'm not putting braces on her at 10. But they want to make sure they can pull the baby teeth that have cavities without causing spacing issues later. They do think braces for the gap in her front teeth, but I know that is easily fixed the same way I had it done, snipping that little thingy in your top lip.

So then its Cody and I. I'm a little freaked out, I don't do dentists well. I had some bad military dentist that not only hurt me so bad I was a puddle of tears while 7 months pregnant, they said they did two root canals, that I sat through, by the way, that they didn't actually do, so my teeth crushed and had to be pulled. And then I have puked for a total of 16 months with my pregnancies, which stripped the calcium out of my teeth while washing them in stomach acids hourly or more.

Lets just say I have some gagging issues and leave it at that, but by the time we got through the xrays, I was near to passing out. They did not have time to clean my teeth after that and I need to go back. (I purposely neglected to tell them that I will not come back!)

So I walk over to Cody's room to see how its going and I immediately inform them that if they are sending him to the ortho, they better not say it today because I'll lose it! They said that they will "eventually" need to send him, but its not urgent. He has an overbite, but it doesn't stop him from eating and he does not look weird or anything. His teeth are nice and straight.

I left there shaking and in tears. (and with several appointments for myself since they are smart about patients who don't like to go) They gave me an application to get interest-free credit for dental stuff and they say "You should apply for $3000, I'm sure it'll be under that though." That made me sick right there, because she isn't even talking about Kaytlin's braces which are almost that much OUR COST.