Adventures in Dental-Land..

Dave and I were at the dentist's office for almost four hours this morning. We were waiting, and then Dave was filling out new patient info. His brain is as sharp as a tack, but his motor skills triple the time it should take to do anything. Once again, I was trying to maintain an unconcerned level of cool when Dave was still working on his three forms fifteen minutes after his appointment should have begun. (He started on them fifteen minutes BEFORE his appointment came, and went). The receptionists kept signaling the universal sign of annoyance by looking at Dave, looking at the clock, and sighing irritably. I just stared dumbly at the soap opera on the TV in the waiting area.

It took almost an hour to get Dave's x-rays done. There was a new girl being trained on them, but they wanted her to do what she could without help. This loosely translated into.. fiddling with it for ten minutes, then running off to find help. After several run-throughs of this same scenario, we finally had Dave's individual and panorax slides. They were not happy when I told them I needed a copy of them for a specialist in Indianapolis. We got some rundown of how they would need to refer him to a specialist, in order to send x-rays to a specialist. Hm, No, I said.. he already has one, he doesn't need to be referred. After bickering with them back and forth for ten minutes they settled on printing them out for me, and charging me heftily for them too. I was given a fierce frown to make them feel better about bending the rules though.

We finally get back to a fancy clinic room where Dave got to lounge in a comfy reclining dental chair and watch Montel on an LCD flat screen that pulled around in front of his face. It was a good thing that TV was in there too, because that's where we sat for a good forty-five minutes waiting for the dentist. What a character this guy was. He's the kind of dentist that definitely makes things interesting. He looked like a middle-aged MC Hammer with colorful pants to match. Kooky goggles, and a cheesy grin. He was a joke a minute, and a LOUD kind of gentleman that should have rubbed my nerves a little bit raw, it was actually quite entertaining. Dave and I were pretty bored by this point in time though, so we happily enjoyed the show.

It was another hour of poking and prodding around inside Dave's mouth to see what he needed to have done. (Um, we might have gone in for a cleaning, and X-rays, but that doesn't mean that's all they expected to be allowed to do). Dave admitted that it had been almost twelve years since he'd been to the dentist. (There's always been a semi-decent reason for it, new to the country, no job, new job, no dental insurance, lay off, new job, dental insurance after two years, wait some more, accident, etc.. but the fact remained, it had been awhile). They made a full scale chart of every inch of his mouth. Dave needs two extractions from teeth that have chipped, and he needs ten fillings. It sounds awful. It IS awful.. but it isn't as bad as we initially feared. There was only one filling needed from enamel decay. The other nine are from Dave grinding his teeth every night since his injury. It's just one of the many habits he's developed since his accident that he can't seem to help. After the teeth are filled, apparently, they want to see if he continues to degrade his teeth from the nightly grind. I can promise them he will. From there, they say a night guard might be in order.

It's almost one in the afternoon by this point, and we've been there almost four hours. It's painfully clear that, while I had hopped we'd make it to speech therapy on time.. it wasn't going to happen. I call Diane at West Central Community Hospital, and tell them we're not going to make it. Elaine still wanted to see him, so she asked us if we could make it by five. I said, I sure hope so.. and we made a new appointment. The dentist finishes explaining to Dave and I what his plans are, and disappears, and we're escorted to the "this is gonna cost a whole, whole lot - let's discuss how you'll pay us" room, where we met a pretty, young woman who smelled like cotton candy. She explained to us that the dentist wouldn't be doing anything today.. but he would do the cleaning first, and on appointment number two he would do the extractions, and on appointment three he would do the first three fillings, on appointment four he would do the middle three fillings, and appointment five would be for the last four fillings. Most people, she explained.. pay upon each visit. Here's what you'll owe. Your deductible is this, insurance covers this, your balance is.. well over five-hundred dollars, and you'll need that within a couple months, okay? Okay. They made Dave's first appointment for this coming Monday morning. My head was spinning. I tried not to panic. I understood that it wasn't really all that bad for all the work they wanted to do in Dave's mouth.. but when the income isn't there, it's definitely a problem. I smiled, I nodded. She asked me if I had any questions. Yes, why does it smell like cotton candy in here? (I try to be funny when I'm scared or upset about something. It's not always funny, lol). We deduced that it was her hand lotion. I paid for Dave's x-rays and we were finally allowed to go home. I told Dave we'd worry about the rest later.

We made it back in time to say Hi and Bye to Mom and off to therapy we went. Dave wanted to show Elaine his x-rays, and then immediately forgot them on the bed. Sometimes I think Elaine believes we're not making the effort to get this prosthesis in the works, but we really and sincerely are. It just seems that, everything that can go wrong, tends to. We called Dr. Lalonde while we were at therapy at Elaine's request and updated him on what we've managed so far. He was very concerned about the planned extractions, and absolutely forbid me to let them pull those teeth because he might need them, (even in their deteriorated condition), for mounting Dave's palatal lift device. Just one more instruction from one more person, that conflicts with one more piece of advice we've gotten from somewhere else. *sigh* I wasn't surprised. Okay, fine, we'll keep the rotten teeth. Check. I don't know HOW I'm going to explain next Monday morning, to a dentist.. that another DENTIST says we need to keep the decayed teeth, for now. Excellent idea.

Dr. Lalonde told me to call the screening clinic as soon as possible, and get Dave registered in their system. The good Dr. said that if Dave's teeth still needed to come out, he could do them, or we could do them later. I don't even know if Dr. Lalonde is covered by our insurance. I'm almost certain that he's not, and I can only imagine the bills we'll rack up over five or more appointments to get this piece that Dave needs. I know it shouldn't even be a thought in my head.. but there are a lot of thoughts in my head at any given moment, and that's one of them.

It's been a very long day, and after the re-telling of our dentistry adventure.. I don't have anything left to tell you about the rest of our day. Fortunately, it only consisted of computer games, online TV, and speech therapy homework. Thank You for joining us tonight, and until next time, Much Love, Many Hugs, and Good Night to You All.