Well, the good news is that I don’t have to have a root canal. The bad news is that the dentist doesn’t think he can do anything about the fact that one of my teeth is “zinging” me occasionally.
I made the appointment because I have a not-so-small lump of money sitting in my Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) that will disappear at the end of the year if its not used. I figured I may as well take care of the tooth that I’ve been ignoring all this time.
I was so sure I knew what tooth it was, too. I knew he would need to know – no sense in working on a tooth that doesn’t actually need working on – so each time it happened, I paid very close attention. As always, once Dr. Welch got in there and started poking around we discovered that it was the tooth next to the one I thought it was.
The tooth in question has a crown on it. What is most likely happening, according to the dentist, is that the crack that prompted him to put the crown on in the first place has probably gotten bigger. Since it already has a crown on it, and (thank god) a root canal would not help, the only other option is to pull the tooth. I just don’t have that kind of money (upwards of $4,000.00) for a procedure that really isn’t necessary.
As long as the “zinging” happens only occasionally, and as long as I can continue to ignore it (as I have been doing for several years now), we’re just going to let things be.
However, I still have that money sitting in my HRA account that needs to be spent somehow. I told Dr. Welch about it, and he suggested taking care of a completely different tooth that has been on the top of the “watch” list for a good 5-6 years now.
It’s not critical, obviously, but it is one that will need to be taken care of sooner or later. I went ahead and made an appointment in October for it. I want to make sure the whole ordeal is well over before I go on vacation next year!
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