Father's Day and Something Else

Well, it's Father's Day 2017. Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there. My dad is long gone so I will spend the day with my children; both batches. Although it is 9:20 in the morning, I am typing and one entire batch of children is still asleep.

I might get to talk about yarn in a minute, but because it is Father's Day, I am going to pick another topic to start with. I have picked a topic that is on all of our minds........Dentistry! I don't like dentists. I'm not talking about dentists as persons, I don't like dentist as a choice of professions. I blame my mother for this opinion.

My mother started every one of my summer vacations with a trip to the dentist. Wait, it gets worse. I had to ride my bike to the dentist. Now, I realize the dentist lived in the neighborhood and his office was only a few blocks away, but kids don't want to ride their bike to something as unpleasant as a trip to the dentist and I was no exception.

Thinking only in the short term, no good ever came from those bike trips. Long term, well, that's debatable. Hairy hands, (that's how I remember them) sticking in your mouth, shots in your gums, (which didn't deaden anything, now I wonder if there was any numbing medication in those injections) Having some hairy-handed clown yelling, "Open your mouth' keep it open!"

OK, that enough about that. In 2006, I broke a tooth while working in Arizona. The tooth broke where a cavity was filled in my youth. I'm telling this story, so I am going to say, Dr. Hairy-Hands, must have weakened the tooth. After getting back to Colorado, I had a local dentist repair the tooth.

I decided to try a new dentist and found one that advertised really well. I liked him, shaved hands, no yelling, numbing medication that actually worked. Two thousand dollars later, I had a beautiful gold molar. Did I mention it came with a root canal? Well, we can talk about that later.

Last March I developed tooth pain, around my beautiful gold molar. Sometime between 2006 and last March, I had parted ways with the creator of my beautiful gold molar. I just can't get comfortable with these guys.

I found another dentist with the advise of a friend. Unfortunately for me, I was assigned to the referred dentist's partner. One hundred dollars of x-rays revealed infection around my beautiful gold molar. The dentist wrote a prescription for antibiotics and said, "The antibiotics should clear up the discomfort you are having. You have a small chip in the tooth above your crown that I can fix for $400. Someday we might need to "retreat" your beautiful gold crown."

Last week, the pain came back. Back to Dr. $400 Chip. "For $100, I can x-ray the tooth again." I said, "All that for $100, let's do it." The x-rays again showed an infection around my beautiful gold molar. Dr. $400 Chip gave me another prescription and another piece of paper with some advice. He said, "take a look at this paper, pick a specialist, I can't help you."

One of the names on the referral list was the same name as a singer from a sixties rock band, I picked him. (I did read his reviews on the internet) I made an appointment.

Things were looking up. Dr Sixties would see me the same day. X-rays were only $95. Sitting in the dentist chair (after the x-rays were taken) I was told I would would be seen by Dr. Sixties partner. Oh boy, here we go again. I had researched Dr. Sixties and no one else.

My wait for the dentist was soon over. I couldn't have been more surprised. The the endodontist walked in; SHE said, "Has anyone ever told you, you have a dental instrument stuck in your tooth?"

Even at this age I can process thing pretty quickly, but I was stunned. Here was a young lady, half my age, half my size, (Hey, I lost some weight, I don't know if its the gym, or it hurts too bad to eat. Oh sorry, must have been a squirrel) standing in front of me telling me I have a drill bit in my tooth.

My reply? "I think I would remember that!" That's when she said ,"don't worry, we have options, I can fix this." For the first time in my life I trusted someone in the dentistry field. She gave me three options.

Option #1 Drill through my beautiful gold crown. Hook drill bit and bring it back out the top. Redo root canal. (50% percent success rate, $1500)

Option #2 Expose tooth root by cutting and folding back gums. Cut bottom of root off and pull drill bit out the bottom. Put gums back in place, sort of. ($1500-$1800)

Option #3 Pull tooth replace with implant. Not done by this dentist. ($3000-$5000)

I have picked Option 2.

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Ivy's Learn-a-Long starts June 29th. I don't get to attend. That should surprise no one. Check out the our Facebook page or website for details.

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Hey,the second batch of kids are awake!

If you need to know who Dr. $400 Chip and Dr. Beautiful Gold are; call me. They are still in the area. Don't feel sorry for me, I needed a subject to write about. It's just part of..........

Our crazy lives!

Monner