Mom Would Be Proud
Remembering her words from half a century ago — which didn’t include “beware Medicare dentistry”
Among the many admonitions and priceless pieces of advice issued to me by my mother during my youth (and beyond), one that has always stuck with me concerned dental maintenance. She was always critical when I didn’t address a problem the moment it became evident.
The sad truth is that because everybody hates going to the dentist, too many of us ignore the cautions and end up losing our teeth along the way. While I didn’t always heed mom’s advice, in my later years, I have taken to recollecting and then taking that advice from so long ago.
Via an unfortunate circumstance I won’t specify here, I knew I’d be spending a year in a place where I didn’t want to have a dental problem. So with mom’s words of wisdom in my ear, I went to the dentist for a little maintenance.
In fact, I knew I had a problem in tooth #10. I could feel the cavity.
Before my 65th birthday, I had on old friend/dentist to whom I entrusted my dental health. Joe was an old pro who knew his dental stuff. And he kept me going expertly and at a more or less reasonable rate. But he wasn’t free. And he was far away. So when I hit my 65th birthday and signed on to a Medicare Advantage plan with almost free dental, you know the rest. Goodbye Joe.
The dental office I chose was the one closest to my apartment. I mean…who knows who’s good and bad in the registry? I couldn’t really blame myself for that decision.
On this particular visit to an office whose dentists were often of the dubious variety, the new practitioner who examined me declared I had no cavities. For some reason I can’t adequately explain, I took his word for it even though I could feel the hole in #10 with my tongue!
And you guessed it. By the time I returned a year later, the new dentist informed me that I needed a root canal and crown for the tooth that supposedly didn’t have a cavity a year before.
So I signed on for what I knew would be a painful process only to have the incompetent administrative staff botch the authorization forms whereupon my plan rejected the dental work I needed.
Then came covid and the closure of everything. Fortunately, I had no pain in the tooth. But with mom’s words in my ear, I knew that eventually, I would. And if I were a good and responsible boy, I’d have this taken care of ASAP!
Months went by until finally, dental offices began reopening. Rather than fool around with the previous idiots, I found a Chinese dentist close by — even though it involved suffering a second copay.
(I don’t like paying twice. But I’d really had enough with dental office #1. This was fairly serious business and I didn’t want those hacks anywhere near my mouth. Additionally, I’d visited another Medicare dentist in Chinatown to have a wisdom tooth pulled a few years before and found him to be really professional. The die was cast.)
And I am happy to say that this office is wonderful. I love the support staff even though they don’t know what the fuck I’m saying. (Their English leaves a bit to be desired. And my Chinese is non-existent.) But they’re really sweet, efficient, and friendly. The girls in the other office were a hot mess.
Yesterday was my second visit with the new dentist. My teeth are clean, an iffy tooth filled, and my root canal is finished and the tooth ready for prime time. And it was all done in a most professional manner (though the root canal hurt).
I know that mom is looking down and saying “good boy. I knew you had it in you.”
So the takeaway here is that
- Moms never really die. They just move on. But their memory keeps them alive.
- You get what you pay for in this life. And if you go on the cheap, you want to be extra careful in doing so.
- Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. It may cost you dearly and be a painful experience.
