Sometimes I wonder about our older generation and their distrusting attitude towards dentists. It might be an absolutely unfair generalization to lump this to all the baby boomers, but I think that our older folks have definitely a different mindset when it comes to the dentists. Heck, I think that goes without saying that they have different mindsets on just about everything, but I digress.
I’ve always believed that if you take care of your teeth, your teeth’ll take care of you. Because one of my promises that I made to myself for every since I could remember, I want to have my own set of teeth when I kick the bucket.
Just for the purely simple reason that I want to be able to eat anything I want under the sun.
Zen Master and a Toothache
While I’m pretty diligent with my twice-a-year cleaning, Zen Master and Zen Mum absolutely stay away from them like the plague. No, sir, they want zero interaction with these people. Which then makes my job interesting when they experience pain in their mouths.
Because their pain then becomes mine.
More specifically, whenever Zen Master has a toothache, I always have the urge to bang my head on the table rather than take him to the dentist.
Thank goodness he doesn’t have toothaches often because I can say he absolutely hates going to the dentist. And doctors, for that matter, but that’s another story for another day.
Interesting, in that their pain becomes mine.
I know that when Zen Master was younger and one of his tooth cracked, he self administered the filling by putting aluminum foil into it himself. Yep, you read that right. The extremes this old fella puts himself through to avoid the dentist is beyond worthy of a mere head shake. Or an eye roll. Or both.
Current Day
Yes, Zen Master now has a tooth bothering him. In fact, it’s bothering him so much that he actually came with me to the dentist. During the ride there, I had the thought to talk to him about the possibility of his tooth may needing to be extracted, if it’s too beyond repair.
Boy, did he balk. And snap. And howl. And whine about not having teeth. He couldn’t hear the marvelous options available nowadays because of modern technology. False teeth from the past went bye-bye because there’re so many options now than before. And that’s a good thing.
But he was still at hello with “pull out the tooth.”
As a result from our lively discussion, let me just say, he was grumpy and cantankerous the. entire. way. to the dentist. I forewarned my nice dentist and her nice staff about his attitude.
So when the nice dentist took the X-ray and said exactly what I knew she would say — the tooth has to be extracted — Zen Master pitched a fit right there in the dentist chair.
May I remind everyone that Zen Master is a 77 year old man? I think I have to because the way he pitched that fit, you can hardly tell.
I had neglected to check if my dentist was in-network with Zen Master’s insurance. But I got my answer when they gave us an estimate for the extraction and a “partial” (dentures) … a whooping two thousand dollars! Which set Zen Master off into another fit, big enough for the both of us, in fact, but I kept my cool. Because I believe there’re always options, always something that can be done.
As Marie Forleo loves to say, “Everything is figure-out-able.”
Next Steps
So when my nice dentist referred someone she knew who turned out to be in-network with Zen Master’s insurance, well, there you go. And an added bonus was that this in-network dentist was a Korean man who could relate to Zen Master. And maybe even be able to get Zen Master to hear and listen to the available options to having dentures. That having an extraction doesn’t mean having no teeth.
So we’ll see.
Sally in the Zen
