Today I go to the dentist for the first time in a year and a half. I know that plenty of people don't have dental coverage at all, so this may seem like a pitifully short time between visits. But I know that you're supposed to go every 6 months.
Part of the problem is that I don't really like my dentist. We started going to him several years ago after getting bitten pretty hard by the fiasco that is dental insurance. We supposedly have 100% coverage on preventative maintenance. So we found this great practice and started going. And then we started getting these bills. I called, and found out that the dental insruance people determine what a "fair and reasonable charge" is, and pay their percentage of that, not the total bill. And we were getting stuck paying the rest of it.
I started calling around to see if this was the norm, and found our current guy, who doesn't bill for any remaining charges on routine, preventative stuff. I could call around again and see if anyone else operates like that... but I just don't have time right now.
My other excuse is that I don't want to take the kids, and this past year has been extremely difficult to coordinate because so many of us got sick so frequently. In fact, the constant stream of germs in and out of our home made it almost impossible to have guests over. The only times we seemed to succeed were when we would suddenly realize, "Hey! Everyone's healthy today! And we have enough food! Let's call so-and-so!" And if they were free at at that moment, it happened. I think that every time I've scheduled something ahead, I've had to reschedule at least once. When Elli ended up in the hospital, I gave up altogether.
So it suddenly hit me a few weeks ago that when Luke arrives, it's going to be that much more difficult to get the stars aligned so I can get to doctor and dentist appointments myself. So I finally called.
And the dentist was out of the country for two weeks.
Today is the first day he's back, and honestly, I doubted whether Luke would wait long enough for me to get in. But he has cooperated well this week (though last night I started wondering).
I've been floss-cramming for the past two weeks in hopes that my gums won't bleed like a stuck pig. Two weeks is usually enough to fool the floss police, but when you're pregnant, it doesn't always work. It does make a good excuse though, so I shouldn't get preached at too badly today. Here's hoping I am still cavity-free!
