More dental work

This is where I recommend that if you grind your teeth, and you don't already have one, get a mouth guard.

I have been doing the jaw clenching thing at night for years. The past 3 years or so I added teeth grinding to the mix. I looked at mouth guards before but at $20-$50 I kept putting it off.

During my last dental cleaning, they found 5 teeth with cavities, all in the front. I had worn the enamel off the backs of my front teeth. I now have a mouth guard to wear at night but it's a little late. Today I had 3 teeth filled. I ended up paying the $20 for the mouth guard anyway (and plan on spending $30 more since the one I have is not comfortable at all) plus I had to spend $72.40 today with another $40 bill coming to cover my deductable. That doesn't include the 2 left to be filled on the 23rd. Not using a mouthguard cost me way more money in the long run.

Cavities are not pleasant either. My dentist is very good about making sure I am completely numb so besides the initial first shot (and I needed 3 shots of that crap total) it didn't hurt, but the sound of the drill is awful. Sitting for 40 minutes with my mouth open is far from comfortable, and now my nose is numb along with my top lip which is just really weird. I only had one cavity growing up and I don't recall getting it filled at all so this was a new experience for me.

And can I just say how much I appreciate dental insurance once again? $72.40 is a much better deal than paying the $362 it would have cost without it.

Dental care a luxury?

Another blogger suggested that dental care was a luxury. She proposed that by taking care of her teeth, it was unnecessary. I beg to differ.

My children have always had to brush their teeth. They were supervised at first, then as they got older, it was on them. I made it through 11 years of parenting before the first cavity came along.

Thing two grinds her teeth. In doing so, she has made her teeth more vulnerable to cavities. In January she was cavity free, and the grinding had just become evident. By September she had two cavities.

The cost to fill two cavities without dental insurance is $253. Today I paid my portion which came to $41.40. That is a bit of a difference. I don't know what ignoring cavities costs in the long run because I refuse to allow it, but I imagine it isn't pretty. Pretty much every state insurance has a dental program for children, so low income is no excuse for it either.

Now dental insurance itself is debatable as a need. Some feel it's cheaper in the long run to pay for visits out of pocket. I can respect that, if they actually make those visits happen. Still, a cleaning runs about $90 a person. Multiply that by 4 and again by 2 for the twice a year we go and that ends up being $720. Our dental insurance per year is about $384. The 100% covered cleanings alone make it worth it. That doesn't even begin to factor in the other dental work (and I will just say that my mouth is a mess that having insurance will allow me to take care of)