Worldly Chatter

All these things just keep happening that deter me from my intentions of writing! My latest battle to conquer was my teeth. I wish I was kidding you when I say this but I had to spend over an hour yesterday in the dentist’s chair! Here is the story. Just under three years ago I had a bit of an accident with a ring and my teeth. I had a thumb ring, one of those bug bulky ones and tripped over a cat and my two front teeth hit the ring. Both of them cracked and chipped. Since that moment more of my two teeth have chipped off and parts of it blacked and all that nastiness. I was living in NY at the time of this little trip up and I was not insured in any way shape or form so I didn’t get it fixed. When I did this I called a dentist and I was informed I would be paying, roughly, $800 with half up front and the other half when the work was complete. Seriously here, am I the kind of girl who has nearly a grand lying around for such an occasion? No, so what happened? Nothing, zip, nada! I went nearly three years with a nice hole in the middle of my smile! Why? Aside from not having the insurance or money at the time, once I got here the situation was the same until my permit arrived. By that time, two years later, I was so used to it that it wasn’t imperative that I get it done. So we took care of other things first. Bills, finding me work, planning a wedding, vacation and all the normal everyday stuff.

Here is where it did become imperative for me to get it done.

When you have a hole in your teeth all kinds of things can annoy it. Food, drink and even cold air can drive it to the point of a pounding headache with a screaming tooth. I had such days but it started to get worse these past two months and especially these past few weeks. You see, two weeks ago a black piece fell off and then yesterday another piece. These pieces have been protecting the nerves and all the inside stuff from becoming exposed to such a point that it hurt to even move your head. When I went to work yesterday I had such a headache that got gradually worse. Talking, eating and drinking was not the best idea I had yesterday morning. Dutchie had made an appointment for me but couldn’t get one until the 9tth of October with one dentist. So she called another as an emergency. I left work and at 3:30 I was sitting in THE chair! That is where I stayed for over an hour as they scraped, sawed, hacked and finally filled and sanded down my two front teeth! I had some serious reconstruction done on those two teeth! The end result:

Two perfect teeth and a bill for €236 which my insurance will cover completely!

Try doing that in America! I was floored! I was really expecting close to €800! And the really strange thing, I wasn’t knocked out! Dutch people don’t get knocked out for anything, root canals, endoscopies, no such thing as knocking out here. My experiences with Dutch dentists have been pleasant actually. My dentist wears Bart Simpson socks!

Now I don’t have to wait until Christmas for my two front teeth!

worldly chatter, dental work, Dutch Dentists, Dutch insurance