redneckgaijin

Spent a bit over an hour at the dentist's today- my first dental visit since 1991.

Diagnosis: three wisdom teeth rotted in place, the fourth one going, all need to come out.

One tooth broken but still live and salvagable, and moreover not recommended for extraction.

Five cavities of varying annoyance to fill.

And that's it.

I was repeatedly told how good my teeth were for seventeen years with zero dental care.

Still, the price breakdown for procedures, in order:

Root canal* therapy- bicuspid - $588.00
Core buildup, bicuspid - $204.00
Extraction, wisdom tooth - $122.00
Extraction, wisdom tooth - $122.00
Filling, incisor - $120.00
Filling, molar - $120.00
Extraction, wisdom tooth - $122.00
Extraction, wisdom tooth - $122.00
Filling, molar - $169.00
Filling, molar - $169.00
Filling, molar - $169.00
Crown, porcelain, fused to bicuspid - $866.00

TOTAL: $2,893.00

* Ah yes, the magic happy words which mean that late next week you won't want to talk to me too much...

I managed to get an interest-free healthcare credit line of $1500.00, but that still leaves about $1400 to cover- not counting the $132 for the visit today and the six bucks for the antibiotic. (Cheap antibiotics- will wonders never cease?)

Anyway, I'll be shaking the begging bowl a bit to help pay for all this, but all in all I'm confident this can be handled in a controlled fashion. This will probably be spaced out from now through the end of the year anyhow, with the first swing coming next week.

But in the meantime, I keep the pain killer to hand- the tooth hasn't bothered me much the past few days, except for the gums- and take a pill four times a day every day through AnimeFEST...

... better start loading the truck for that, too.