more dental off the list

[Zoe Girl]

We have bad teeth, really pretty bad teeth. My mom has had ones that crack and fall apart, and now is at the age where old crowns are starting to fall apart. I have 3 root canals, 5 crowns and one extraction as an adult. So my kids are getting a lot of dental work as well. I got a credit account just for this that has zero % on it for a year, however simply the amount of appointments has had us fall behind and some cavities have become root canals. My one daughter ended up with 2 over last spring break because their dad had been doing dental care and stopped, I didn't figure it out for awhile and then had to find new dentists and figure out getting dental insurance through work, in any case they went about 2 years without care during the teenage years of sodas and candy they could buy themselves.

So for one kid we are down to one last appointment from 12 cavities in spring!! I was going to postpone the next appointment but it will only be $88 so I can swing that. I also scheduled everyone's cleanings including my own. I had to take the last 5 months off of doing appointments because it was getting so extreme last year between dentist and multiple counselors. Now with no counseling appointments for anyone (myself included) I actually can take care of the rest of our dental/medical needs.

As a bonus, the one with 12 cavities that took about 2-3 years to develop has switched to mostly ice tea instead of sodas. Especially since after this she will be paying it herself (she had the super bad year so this is my effort to help herr get on her feet).

[Mrs-M]

My goodness... I'm sending you a measure of added strength and wisdom to weed your way through all this, Zoe Girl. Where you find your strength is beyond me, but boy do I ever admire you for it. I wish I had half of what you have.

[sweetana3]

Well, my dentist admitted about the same number of root canals and crowns so it sometimes is just genetic luck.

[Zoe Girl]

well now I feel pretty good, first of all that it IS a lot of work to handle this, whew. Managing the financial aspect is certainly part of the deal I am catching up my money in the computer so I can see overall what our healthcare spending has been this last year.

And yeah, i see that we all brush and floss and use rinses. My mom was not a person whose dental care was neglected as a kid and she didn't neglect ours. So I just am grateful that my health issue can be fixed.

[iris lily]

Oh it is so heavily genetics. I don't have one cavity in my head and I don't take any special care of my teeth. I once went 10+ years without going to a dentist.

[Tussiemussies]

It's a shame Zoe that your family has all inherited bad teeth. Dental is so darn expensive. We always save it for last when we have money that has to go toward healthcare. I know this isn't good but gone are the days when dental was a given benefit from work.