"Say Ahhh" indeed, like what you say when you realize you've been had.
So yesterday I went to my dentist at good old CFHC, aka, Appalachian Emergency Room, and she filled a "cavity" that she said I had. Now I did tell her I was experiencing some sensitivity to cold on the upper right side but frankly it's more towards the back, not the front. I shrugged and figured "Well she's the doctor..." and assumed that maybe the tooth she was indicating might be transmitting that cavity pain when drink cold beverages to the whole right side and I was interpreting it as the upper back by mistake. What do I know.
The tooth she filled is circled in blue above. It's tooth Number 5. Now if you'll notice, it has amalgam in it. That's not what she did. That's an old filling from many years ago. She did the newfangled composite resin that I circled in green. You can't see anything 'cause its "tooth colored." It's very tiny and though I was quite well numbed by the Novocaine, I could tell she didn't drill very deep.
Above we see the x-rays of two angles of tooth Number 5, circled in pink. I'm guessing the dentist felt that the little, tiny grey fleck where the green arrow is pointing is, or should I now say, was, supposedly a cavity. These x-rays were taken before my cleaning and I can also see tartar build up between various teeth. Could that be tartar? Or perhaps just one of the natural ridges of that tooth poking up behind the old amalgam (think 3-D) which I can right now clearly feel with my tongue?
Hmm. Something seems fishy to me.
I never felt any pain in that tooth. I never felt any fissure or dent or crater or anything out of the ordinary with that tooth. All the metal in my mouth, silver and gold alike, is from the 80s so I'm very familiar with every nook and cranny.
There is a new crack that's appeared in a tooth on the far left side of my mouth (far right in the pic of course since its not a mirror image) and I indicated to my hygienist that did my regular cleaning last month that there was some slight pain and probably a cavity under the filling there. But that tooth, which I already knew and the hygienist confirmed, would not be a quick fix if I needed treatment since it's like 75% amalgam and would disintegrate if the filling were removed. We'd be talking crown or extraction I guess.
So here's the thing, when I'm getting prepped for the filling yesterday, the assistant tells me that there's a cavity on the left side that the doctor will fill on my next appointment. I was nervous about the procedure I was getting ready to undergo and I didn't give her comment much thought but then I realized later that we must be talking about another tooth that doesn't bother me at all and that the doctor has just magically found a new cavity without looking at my mouth? I know the hygienist said she's tell the doctor about my issue with the tooth I'm having an issue with so that she'd inform me of options but the doctor can't mean the tooth in question would just be scheduled for a simple filling, it won't withstand it structurally, even I know that. What's going on here?
I called the office today to get clarification on what tooth the doctor is planning on filling on this upcoming appointment and the rep said it was tooth Number 5. I told her that's not correct, explaining that was the tooth I had done yesterday but she misunderstood me and thought I was telling her off saying she was wrong. I tried to explain to her I wasn't saying it was her fault but that it was whoever put the information in the system but she was not having any of my "Mr. Man" today and hung up in my face. I called back and got another rep, who was also a little pensive with me (no doubt, I now have "notes" on me when they pull me up during verification warning reps that I'm a "problem caller.") and asked for a callback from the doctor when she's available.
It's 3:30 and these calls were well before noon. I don't think the doc's gonna call me. I don't think they like patients who ask too many questions.
I'm tempted to go to another dentist with all this and ask their opinion but being a small town I wonder how insular they all would be in not finking out on the scams one of them are pulling. Who's to say they all aren't doing it. I always suspected my dentist in the 80s was doing so. I had great dental insurance in those days and it seemed I had a new "cavity" every other month. Maybe I never had such bad teeth after all and it was all a big scam.
Why is it humans are the only animals that need constant dental care? Other animals chew something fibrous or tough like bark or roots or whatever and they're good to go.
It's all a big, big scam!!!
Ahhh!!!