I can't believe that I actually went online to youtube to look at a superbowl ad that I heard about for Budweiser. It is one of those ads that tugs on your heart strings if you love puppies (I do). I loved the ad. Unfortunately, I am not much of a beer drinker, and the few times that I do drink beer it isn't Budweiser. That isn't about to change.
Five and a half years ago, when I bought my car, I was briefly obsessed by which car to buy- and ready for all the car ads on TV- bring it on. But none of them were about any of the models that I wanted to buy- economy, compact, fuel-efficient cars. But I guess those types of cars don't need advertising- they sell themselves.
TV advertising so rarely meets the mind it is designed for. I wonder if it will survive. Perhaps with cable TV they will start to personalize the ads that we receive based upon demographic info. I can really only think of two things I have bought that were inspired by TV ads, and both were cleaning products.
So I am writing about this banality so I don't have to process my trip to the periodontist. I had a toothache with some swelling in December, the week of my breast biopsy- and I couldn't deal with a trip to the dentist- but it mostly went away after a couple of days, and then I had the holidays, and then I knew I had a dentist appointment in early January. He referred me to a periodontist- who couldn't get me in until this week- and it is worse than I feared.
I have one spot of really bad periodontitis. Plus I have really short roots of my teeth (he wasn't the first to tell me that). If I didn't have such short roots it might be worth trying to save the tooth, but it isn't- and the two next to it will probably be lost eventually. But to stop it from spreading, I have to get them pulled sooner rather than later. And if I want to get implants- I need to get 4 teeth pulled, the way that they put them in.
I can't help wondering what if I had done something sooner. And I thought it was just one bad tooth- I didn't know how bad it was. Now I have the prospect of getting 4 teeth pulled. I'm definitely getting implants. I still have enough bone left to do that- another reason to do this sooner- before I lose it.
I do have dental insurance, but I don't know how much of this it will cover. I think that a lot of the implants will not be covered. So I am not hiking the Appalachian Trail next year, I will be paying off my teeth...
But he did say that the implants may improve my appearance. I have gaps in my teeth, especially on the bottom - I have learned to smile with my mouth closed. He said that the teeth can be made larger so there won't be the gaps- it is the front bottom teeth that will be pulled. I will have a temporary denture for several weeks and then the permanent caps for the implants.
They will submit it all to my insurance and get me an estimate before I get scheduled. I am guessing that I will have to prepay.
I have had dreams in which my teeth fell out. I guess I wasn't too far off.
2 comments:
Are your teeth affected by the meds? My dentist tells me he worries about me and he takes extra steps to try to battle the essential breakdown of my teeth thanks to years of dry mouth, compounded by damage from vomiting constantly on lamictal and again later when I had a prolonged lithium toxicity. Oh, and I grind my teeth which doesn't help. But mostly I get a lot of cavities and it doesn't seem to matter a lot what I do. I go in for a filling in March but I already know where the next cavity is.
The implants are a huge ordeal but my mom loves hers. She had partials before and couldn't stand to wear them so these were a huge improvement. If you have to pay you may want to check into Care Credit and see if they accept it. It helped me out when I had to pay for a root canal out of pocket and if you set up the right plan it is interest free.
Sorry about this on top of everything else.
JMJ
My teeth dry out my mouth and I grind my teeth- which can be from some meds too. I'm sure they don't help. Thanks for the info on financing- I have cash I set aside for a move and my health savings account and my income tax return and hopefully that will be enough.
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