10-23-17  an expensive day:

About a week ago Ken and I finally went to the dentist.  Since he retired almost 6 years ago, we hadn't been.  That's when we no longer had dental insurance.  But I'd been wanting to get a cleaning and Ken had a crown come off about a month ago---so he could no longer delay going.  So he had his tooth pulled and I had a cleaning.  Although they said my teeth and gums were in good shape, x-rays did show 2 more molars that had cracked under old fillings.  Back in the day---they use to drill out a lot more tooth when they did fillings.  I guess it was their insurance that you'd be back for a crown when you got older.  

Now that Ken is on Medicare and has a basic dental plan, he looked for a dentist here in Georgia that was in his plan.  Turned out it didn't matter since the plan only covered a cleaning and xrays.  So we bought the "family plan" for a discounts on services.  His extraction was about $250 and my crowns are about $1300 @.

Fast forward to today----I had an appointment to get one of the crowns.  It was suppose to be done all in one day---unlike the other 3 I have.  I was pretty excited about that.  So I got there about 9am for my 3 hour appointment.  The initial fun stuff was done---like getting my gums and tongue shot up and numbed.  Then the Dr. started explaining to his assistant or new dentist, or whomever she was, how to use the laptop.
Yep, I took pictures while  I was waiting for the shots to take affect.  The laptop is apparently connected to whatever is used to make the one day crowns.  And, of course, it decided not to work.  After they messed around with it for over 30 minutes and called technical support, the dentist said too bad, they can't do the one day crown today, and I can come back when the machine is replaced; or he could drill the tooth down now and put a temp on it.  Then come back in 2 weeks for the permanent crown---just like the old days.  Of course I elected to have it done the old way so I didn't have to get the shots again!    Isn't technology grand!

 I even got to watch HGTV while he was drilling away on my tooth. 

Although I liked the Dr., I'm not too crazy about being a guinea pig for the new Dr./assistant/whatever---been there, done that!  I suspect she'll be putting my crown on.  Hope she has a lot of practice in the 2 weeks I have to wait!  At least he didn't let her drill away on the tooth or build it up.  He did have her fit the temp. crown, though.  Still haven't decided when I'm having the 2nd one done.  It's actually the one that has bothered me a bit.  But the one he did today is the one he said was in worse shape.  Should have had them all crowned while we still had insurance!!!  Fortunately I had braces when I was a kid and had 4 permanent bicuspids pulled then and my wisdom teeth removed a few years later.  At least I don't have to worry about crowning them!