Duh duh duh duh DUH....the dentist

Going to the dentist-what a joke.

So I hate the dentist-HATE with a capital H. They're usually rough on my teeth, cause pain, cost me tons of money and not so trustworthy.

I walk into the dentist with a huge knot in my stomach because of what I explained above. The x-ray technician takes 19, yes 19 x-rays. That seems a little excessive to me, but whatever I know that's covered under my insurance. So then I go sit in the chair, the dentist comes and talks to me. I know right away he's mormon. Why are all dentists mormon? He did the small talk thing and I found out he's an alum of Mountain View (which only confirmed the mormon suspicion) and then explained this tooth I'm having trouble with. He asked me like twice if I have insurance, which set off a big red flag in my head. I thought, alright what are you going to tack on here that I don't need? So everything he explains to me makes sense and I'm starting to put a little-NOT A LOT- of trust in this guy. He seemed semi legit. So then the "financial" lady came and told me my break down. $146 for scaling (extremely painful cleaning) one tooth, flouride varnish and antibacterial wash.

Wait, it gets better. So I go into another room where the dental hygenist can do the cleaning. She scales my one tooth that hurts. I'm sitting there cringing in my chair and she says, "Does that bother you?" Hmmm, no I like wrinkling my face just for the fun of it. But instead I decide to say, "yes" as I taste the blood gushing down my throat. Keep in mind this is just the one tooth. So then she pulls out this professional strength flouride varnish. Wipes it all over my tooth that is still throbbing. She was nice enough to use the rest of the varnish in the little package on other teeth that she thought could use it. I'll give her that one. So far with that +1, she's at -19. So then she's like, "well that was easy." I said, "What about my cleaning? That's what I came in for." She said, "the dentist must not have thought you needed a cleaning, your teeth look great." I said, "It's been years since my last cleaning, I doubt he doesn't want me to get it done." So she goes back to talk to him and figure out what's going on. Turns out it was "miscommunication." She was supposed to do the cleaning, then the scaling and varnish. But now that this flouride varnish is already on my teeth I can't have the cleaning done today. She tries to blame it on the dentist saying that his priority was the pain first (my one tooth), but in reality she could have done it all in probably 15 short minutes. So there's this screen by my head with my bill on it-which I'm very grateful for. I said, "Did you do the antibacterial irrigation?" She said, "no, I don't think you need it..." and explained why. So we're going more into the negetive here. Either the dentist is trying to drain my money with an unnecessary procedure or she made another mistake. Regardless, I decide $40 less on my bill is fine with me. So she says, "I'll have the front lady give you a credit towards your next cleaning for that." I said, "No, it needs to come off my bill. That procedure wasn't even done." She says, "Well I'll see what they can do." So she goes up to the front desk with me, says the antibacterial irrigation wasn't done because I didn't need it and the lady says she'll take it right off. Alright, I like the financial lady a little more.

So I have to schedule another appointment for tomorrow to get my teeth cleaned-waste of time. I ask to look at her screen with my bill on it and it says $86. So I check it over and somehow it doesn't make sense to me that $146-$40 antibacterial junk = $86, but I will not complain. So I pay the bill and now I have to go back tomorrow. Did I mention how much I hate the dentist?? But there is good news: no cavities!!