Dental Drama

I am indebted to my grandparents for many things. For their help and encouragement in my schooling, for their love, for their teaching me about the wonderful world of reading, and for a wonderful roof over my head that holds most of my dear memories. But if there is one thing that I am not grateful for from that side of the family, it is our inherited dental conditions! Over the years, this has racked up so many dental bills for my parents and I that I cringe to think about it.

But in reality, the hardest thing about this isn’t so much dealing with teeth issues themselves, but rather the dentists/orthodontists. Growing up, I thought that it was a rule that in order to go into these professions, you had to have disdain for those with imperfect teeth, or those without millions of dollars to go into it to make them perfect. We have switched dentist so many times I can’t even remember them all, and for the most part, they have all been pretty awful. The current ones we have at home are the worst-when I got engaged they proceeded to tell me how crazy I was, how I was going to regret it, and when I surprisingly didn’t listen to them, they decided they must now harass Mariah every time she comes in and warn her not to turn out like her older sister and get married young.So this last Christmas break, when I went in I was praying that it would be a quick visit, in and out and I would be fine [especially since I had just seen them less then six months prior and they told be I had no cavities and was doing excellently.]

WRONG. Apparently, in that short 6 months I had gained the need for a route canal as soon as possible in order to save the tooth-I asked them why they didn’t notice it last time, and apparently it didn’t show up on their x rays since one of the fillings I had that THEY had put in cracked, and the decay started there, thus hiding it those few months ago. They even openly admitted that there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. And yet still, I was the one who was going to have to get the route canal and pay the money for their mistake. Frustrating, but what are you going to do?

The problem was I was leaving in a few days to head back to school, so the plan became get the route canal right away, and get the crown and seating done in Idaho. This is what we did. The route canal was long and painful, but ultimately fine.

So when we got back to Rexburg and found a dentist, I was SO worried I could feel my abs contracting the whole way there. But when I arrived, they were SO nice and friendly; they greeted me by name, put me in a seat in the waiting room right in front of a fireplace and plasma tv. I was pleasantly surprised, but still waiting for the bad news dentist always bring. Then I got in there, and they said that the dentist, after talking to me, had said this was a FREE consultation. They put me in their MASSAGING dental chair, tilted me back handed me a remote and headphones, so I could watch the flatscreen plasma tv on their CEILING, any channel I chose. While they were working on me, they even consistently kept putting chap stick on my lips so it wouldn't hurt! How thoughtful is that!

When they were finished, they sat me up and I waited for the bad news, bc so far, this was all to good to be true. Then the dentist tells me that the because 1, he knows how it is to be a young struggling married college student and now has a daughter my age, and 2 the previous dentist hadn’t done the best work, that he would do the buildup for free at my next appointment [normally 200] and then give me another 5% discount off the price of the crown itself. Is that amazing or what? I was ecstatic-I came home and said a prayer of thanks that Heavenly Father had helped us with this seemingly impossible thing. My last appointment was earlier this week, and get this-even though he had to lazer off some of gums, and my face had been a little bit swelled and I have been in quite a bit of pain [thank goodness for drugs] this has still been the best overall dental experience I have ever had!

So thanks Grandma & Grandpa Chandler-between the other things I learned from you guys, and the dentist in Idaho, even the bad things I may have gotten from you really are not that bad at all!

[I never understood why ppl would where this until now!]