Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Dentist!

I took Daniel to the dentist in late February for the first time in about 18 months.  (Bad Mom!  I know.)  Of course by then, he had gone from having perfect teeth, to having 8-9 cavities that needed to be filled between his teeth.  (FLOSS, for goodness' sake!  FLOSS!)  One of his cavities actually needed to be crowned.  This was going to run us just under $800 out of pocket to do.  On his baby teeth. *sigh* We don't have that kind of money, so like any good overwhelmed mommy, I ran and hid from the mess for 3 months.  Well, the tooth that needed to be crowned really started to hurt him, so I took him in for a consultation and a second opinion from an office that came very highly recommended from a couple of individuals and a general dentist.  

After they got done looking at his teeth (and taking their own x-rays), they brought him out and told me how good he was in the back and how they had no trouble with him, and he was all smiles.  This is always nice to hear.  However, by now the verdict was even more bleak.  3 of the other cavities were now going to need to be crowned.  My bill will now be $2000.  Out. Of. Pocket.  For baby teeth.  They will fall out in about 2 years.  At this point, I start sobbing hysterically, and the poor girl going over the numbers with me doesn't know what to do with me.  She asks if I'd like to send the kids back out to the waiting room to play while we discuss our options.  The kids say they'd like to go play, so, even though normally I don't like to let them out of my sight in public, I allow it.  We discuss options, I have a chat with the dentist who tells me that they may not have to do crowns on those teeth if he doesn't hit the nerve, but he wanted to err on the side of caution.  Meanwhile, Daniel still needs to have a crown put on his hurting tooth immediately at a cost of $344.  Well, I have a Benny card, and I think there's enough left on it, so I head back out to the waiting room for them to call Daniel back again so they can do his crown.   

They have a cool safari themed waiting room.  There's a big fish tank that people can walk behind, and there's this climb-y enclosed thing the kids can play in. And there are a couple of televisions and plenty of seating.  On first glance into the waiting room, I don't see the kids, so I figure they must be in the climb-y thing, or behind the fish.  I look behind the fish.  Not there.  I look in the climb-y thing.  Not there.  Huh.  I check the bathroom.  Not there.  I go back to the climb-y thing and call for them.  Nothing.  There's nobody inside. I do another quick sweep of the waiting room, and they are clearly not there.  I tell the lady behind the desk that my kids came out to the waiting room to play, but they are not there, and would she please check the back for them.  She checks.  They are not there.  I make another sweep of the waiting room and all the nooks and crannies.  NOT.  THERE.  So I ask the lady at the desk if she will allow me to check the back and see if my kids are there.  Not knowing what else to do, she says yes.  I wander around in back looking for the kids, of course I can't see them there.  The assistants back there ask me what I'm doing, and I tell them that my kids are nowhere to be found.  So they all start the search for my kids.  

By this time, I'm starting to freak out.  There's no shouting or hysterics yet, but there is some definite desperation.  I am imagining myself having to call the police and fill out reports, and some MANIAC has just walked into a dental office and took off with my children, and I'll never see them again, and how am I supposed to live without them?  What will I say to Jeremy?  I am the only person on earth that could lose both of their children in one afternoon in a dentist's office!  What if they don't come back?  I really don't think I can survive that...

They call me from the waiting room.  They found them!  The children had been hiding in the climb-y thing, laying flat under the windows so that I couldn't see them.

...

Okay, let me just say, that as happy as I was that they were still alive, they came tremendously close to being skinned alive right then and there!  Lucky for them we had more time to wait in the waiting room, because if we had been ready to leave, we would have gone straight home, where I would have tanned both their hides so well, that they would not have been able to sit for a MONTH!  I stared them both down, and told them that that was NOT funny.  And to never, EVER do that again.  I should have used their restroom to thrash them ... everyone would have heard, but I don't think there would have been one parent there that blamed me.  *sigh*  Anyway, I don't think they will try that again, because they could tell that I was serious.  So much for "Oh, he's been so good!"  I was so embarrassed.  But at least I still have my brats.  Strangely enough, I love 'em anyway.  

7 comments:

lizS said...

oh my heck i would have KILLED THEM BOTH!!

timpani76 said...

I hate it when I can't find the kids (ok, it's always Vance). Vance got dragged pretty hard into the house one day when he would not come when I was yelling for him all over the yard. He's better about it now, but how many years of my life have I lost from not being able to find Vance? Scariest feeling ever!

Dana Cheryl said...

Gosh kids are expensive! That got teeth needing to be fixed and then they go and drive ya over the edge of sanity...

Long term psychiatric care ain't cheap! :)

Would it be less expensive to just pull the tooth and put in a spacer? Just wondering...

Dana Cheryl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dana Cheryl said...

The deleted comment is me. For some reason blogger double posted it... Dang blogger!

Mary said...

No, we looked into the spacer option and it would actually be more expensive, and worse for him. So crowns it is. :( We're working on getting the kids on PeachCare for now.

Mary said...

And they were denied the Peachcare because they already have insurance. Even though insurance won't cover anything. Someone remind me again why I'm paying over $200/mo premium along with $600 deductible per family member and $75 per specialist visit and STILL CAN'T GET MY KIDS CARED FOR?! I could take all that money and put it into an interest bearing savings account and pay for everything that my kids have had done. Instead, it's gone, and I can't afford to have my kids' teeth fixed. Insurance: a great idea. I've been thinking about dropping our crappy insurance and buying into a co-op or something, or even just putting our money into a savings account, but that won't be possible next year with the new Unconstitutional law enacted by our great and wonderful leader. Thank you BO, and all you other shifty crooks on Capitol Hill.