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When I got my new job and finally had great health and dental insurance I was excited to choose my own doctors and dentist. I could have stayed with the dentist I’d had for several years -- they’re fine -- but I loved the idea of being able to walk to appointments and there is a dental office just 1 mile from my house.
My first appointment was in the early autumn of 2021 and I was quite pleased. The woman dentist was friendly and patient with all my questions and concerns. The only thing I questioned was when she said my last lower left molar looked like it might break and I might want to consider a crown. I said let’s wait until my next appointment and see if it has worsened.
Well, by my next appointment in May 2022, she was gone from the practice. A different dentist ... I’m not even sure if it was the same one I would be seeing the following November, but I’ll elaborate on that later ... a different dentist looked at my teeth and said, no, that back tooth is fine; it’s the middle molar right next to it that should be capped. I was surprised and wondered how such a mistake could have been made. I also had long been feeling that back molar with my tongue, because it has a filling that wasn’t smoothed well and two very prominent points in the back that my tongue just likes, apparently. But the dentist is supposed to be the expert, so I went along with it. A couple of weeks later, I returned and left with that middle molar capped.
Actually, it was a two appointment process and I’m skimming over that process, but the important part is that they left a large gap between my middle molar and my back molar. So all summer and into the autumn, I kept getting food fibers stuck in there. Especially orange pith because I eat several clementines every day. And I’m plant based, eating veggies every day. I floss more than once a day now, just that one space, because sometimes it’s so annoying, the stuff stuck in there.
Maybe I should have gone back immediately, but it took me a few weeks to realize it was a long-lasting problem and then it was summer vacation. I ultimately decided to wait until my next appointment to complain. But they brushed me off! When I returned for my third cleaning and checkup last November, and I described the problem, they claimed that the floss snaps when they pull it out so the teeth are close enough together. It does not snap when I pull it through!
And they have this fancy machine. My previous dental office doesn’t have it; I’d never seen one before. They scan my teeth with this fat wand and a colorful image of my jaws and teeth appear on the big screen, different colors indicating “elevation,” sort of. The reddest parts are danger zones where the teeth hit each other. They did the scan at all three appointments. The first appointment she explained what she was doing, but didn’t express any concern. The second appointment, the dentist (whoever it was) talked a little about how those red zones could indicate where teeth are crashing into each other because they’re misaligned, but I did not get an urgent message that anything must be done. But last November, the dentist I saw was a huge salesman. He was really pushing me to get the new kind of braces that are plastic arcs you wear in your mouth all day for a couple years then periodically forever. He talked quite a bit about how the scan shows those red danger zones and so I should straighten my teeth (even though only the bottom teeth are a little crooked). But he didn’t say anything is imminent. He only said we never know; a tooth could break tomorrow or years from now. I was nearly convinced though.
Until the lady came in with the treatment plan. She pointed to the cost and the amount the insurance covers and the thousands of dollars we’d have to pay. Yikes. If it had been a reasonable amount I might have made an appointment for it right there; instead I said I would need to go home and talk to my husband about it.
I also needed more time to think about it. Because we have good dental insurance that’s covering everything necessary. So the high cost of this plastic teeth straightening device makes me feel like it’s more of a money-earner for dentists and the manufacturers than something I really need. And I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the way my mouth and teeth are working. I don’t grind my teeth. I don’t eat a lot of hard food or crunch dramatically on anything. When I happen to think about my mouth during a restful period, like while I’m typing this journaling, my teeth aren’t even touching each other. So those red zones are not something to worry much about.
I already had braces in childhood. My top teeth have stayed pretty straight despite stopping wearing my retainer after a year or two, thinking my orthodontist had been joking when he told me to wear it forever. The tooth in front that was practically sideways before I got my childhood braces is still perfectly straight. Only my front bottom teeth got a little crooked, and they look just like my dad’s. It’s a little annoying when a chia seed gets stuck in them, but stuff like that gets stuck between straight teeth too.
So I’ve been pondering whether to go back to this dentist or go back to my old dentist. I still love that I can walk to the new dentist, so I’m thinking of keeping my May 2023 appointment and expressing my thoughts on the matter. If they continue to pressure me with their sales pitch, I can switch after that. But then again, maybe I should just go back to my previous low pressure dentist, where they don’t have newfangled money-earning fancy machines that make things look problematic when they’re really not.
