© 2011, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

© 2011, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

Yesterday, I cracked my right front incisor (tooth also called #8). It’s one of the two that I had crowned in December ’09 because #9 was off colored as a result of a collision with my brother, Dan, when we were but children. My dentist and Mrs. Major had been after me for years to take care of the unsightly tooth, so I finally did. Now #8 is broken…not only just the crown but also the tooth. I’m scheduled for a root canal and a re-crown on Monday to the tune of about $1100 (my share after insurance). Sigh.

If I’m lucky, that’s what will happen. If the tooth is cracked into the root, the tooth is not restorable and I’ll probably have to have a bridge or a gap. I’m sure the gap will be the cheapest…the bridge costing an arm, torso, and first born child.

Some say bad things happen in threes. Hopefully, the third thing will happen to someone else…someone on a different planet.

© 2011, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

© 2011, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

Depending on what the noon reading is and what the doctors say, I may get to go home later this afternoon/evening.

Other than the cold soup and warm popsicles, I’m doing fine.

I appreciate all the prayers and well wishes. Thank you.

© 2011, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

About a year and a half ago, Dr. Still recommended that I replace the crowns on teeth 18 and 19 as they were beginning to “leak” and I would begin to get cavities underneath them soon. He gave me a treatment plan for the two crowns at $2200.¹ I have this minimalist dental insurance² that was already maxed out for last fiscal year, so I tried to negotiate with the doctor on the price. He pretty much laughed me off.

I waited until the beginning of this fiscal year and attempted to renegotiate a better price for the two crowns. He refused. When my perodontist also recommended that I get the crowns replaced, I began to shop around to see if a local dentist would do them for less. The good folks at Royal Dental concurred with Laurel Manor Dental’s diagnosis and agreed to replace the crowns for $699 each. I requested that Laurel Manor Dental send my x-rays to Royal Dental so that they could do the work. Which they did for the agreed upon price. They did a great job, too.

A week or so later, I got a letter from Stacy Markle stating that Laurel Manor Dental was sorry to see me leave and was wishing me the “very best in your future dental care.” I called Ms. Markle several times but was unsuccessful. The last time I left her a message on her voicemail stating that I was not changing dentists. I just wanted to save $800 on my crowns. Other than the price for the crowns, I was completely satisfied with Laurel Manor Dental.

Yesterday, I received a “Dear John” letter from Ms. Markle. I quote it here:

As referenced in my letter to you dated July 20^th 2009 it is my understanding that you have chosen to seek dental care elsewhere. You indicated such to us when you requested your radiographs be forwarded to another office in order to have your treatment performed there. As a practice policy, we do not assume responsibility for treatment received outside of this office when we have diagnosed treatment and established a relationship with our patient. Therefore, as stated in my letter, we regret your decision, however, wish you the very best in your future dental care.³

A nice, friendly letter making it seem like I had abandoned our relationship. Figuring that a business manager would be loath to loose two valued customers in these tough economic times, I called Ms. Markle. I was astounded that, indeed, I was fired as a patient. They had cancelled my appointment for a cleaning for Wednesday.

I guess we’ll have to find another dentist.

© 2009, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

1. Actually $910 per crown and $195 each for buildups…so it’s really $2210.
2. It’s The Retiree Dental Program for retired military which we pay for. It doesn’t cover all the costs and for crowns there is a max per crown that is very low. They only pay 50% with a max of $350 per crown.
3. I can’t help it. The punctuation in the first sentence is amiss. And one doesn’t diagnose a treatment; one prescribes a treatment.

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Seems a little Orwellian to me. Beware: don’t post anything anti ObamaCare or your web site, ip address, or email might make it to the White House suspects list.

Oh, crap . . .

© 2009, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

I say alternate dentist because my regular dentist insisted that I replace these two crowns then proceeded to give me an estimate of $2400. So, since my insurance is crap (will probably pay $250 for each) and my regular dentist refused to negotiate, I shopped around and found my alternate dentist who is doing them both for $1398.

Got me to thinking. If we had to shop around for medical care instead of our insurance paying most of the bill, maybe medical care wouldn’t cost so much. Just saying.

© 2009, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.

© 2008, J. M. Erickson. All rights reserved.