Why do mini-medical emergencies always happen on a weekend? To me? Murphy's law?
One of my fillings came out couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday. Or was it Sunday?
I don't have a dentist in N.Y.C. and I love the one in D.C. I also trust him. He's not ripping me off and he understands my absolute "NO PAIN" philosophy of life.
So M. found me a dentist close to home, who accepts our insurance and has good reviews.
I walk into his office and he is an extremely young Asian man. A question mark lights up in my head. I tell him what the problem is and that I had everything done to my teeth only in December, including the X-ray. He still wants to do it, just to be sure.
"Won't the frequent X-rays fry my brain or something,?" I'm trying to be funny in the middle of a jam. "No, no, of course not," he says. Well, it's not his head.
But I let him do it. What was I suppose to do. "No, just do it with your eyes closed, you went to the medical school didn't you?" No, I didn't say that. Tricked you, ha?
So after he fries my brain a bit, he says that my tooth needs a fancy porcelain inlay filling. M. often says I'm spoiled but I never thought my teeth were too.
"I don't think my insurance will pay for that. It sounds expensive," I said, doubting him even more. He does have an office just off Park Avenue. Somebody has to pay for that.
"Well, sometimes you shouldn't think about the insurance, sometimes your tooth really needs something," he replied. I swear, that's what he said! O.K., that question mark is the size of my head now.
"I really need to know how much that would cost before you start doing it," says I.
"I can't check on that here, you have to go to the front desk and they'll tell you."
At least, he closed my gap temporarily. He knew I didn't buy it.
So the front desk assistant gives me the estimate. Guess how much?
Almost $900! For one fancy-shmency filling? Outrageous. Well, maybe the Wall Street people and Trumpists don't care about being ripped off by this just-out-of-school Asian Park Avenue dentist. But I do.
So I take my X-ray, pay for it and the exam, and leave. Happily.
p.s.Did I write about his before? I have to lay off those X-rays...
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2 comments:
Not to make you crazy or anything, but dental X-rays are the largest source of unnecessarily induced cancer. If you brush and floss regularly then you don't need X-rays on every visit. And every time a dentist needs to do something non-routine to your teeth, they will want to take an X-ray, which in most cases doesn't tell them anything new. It's my guess that it's highly unlikely to tell them anything new -- they just want to cover themselves.
Really? Oh, my God, I had no idea!They are total assess, you know. I always wonder what they can see on that thing? It looks like they can only see big stuff, by then it would hurt or be visible to the naked eye or something.
I'm never going to let them do it again.
Thank you for the advice!I really appreciate it!
Best,
Marija
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