Yes, I am suspicious of the "dental industry." I mean, brushing your teeth a few times a day will save you a lot of pain and probably embarassment, too. But going to the dentist twice a year seems excessive to me. And I have no dental covereage.
I also have a thing about the dentist because I had to get a few fillings drilled a long time ago. The drilling hurt. Bad. And as I writhed in pain he told me I was "overreacting"
(how the hell would
he know?!). If he hadn't had my mouth full of holes I would've walked out right then. I haven't been to the dentist since. That was thirteen years ago.
Also, a dentist messed up my mom's entire life. She went in for a routine extraction twelve years ago. The dentist realized in the middle of the procedure that this was beyond his expertise and packed her mouth and sent her to an oral surgeon (yes, she drove herself mid-procedure). She ended up with a bone infection in her jaw that nobody caught but, instead, gave her medication that masked the symptoms while it got worse. Since then she has spent a total of a few years on intravenous antibiotics, had to spend days and days in anaerobic chambers, gotten anaphylactic shock and almost died, has had at least ten operations on her jaw, was a patient at the Rush Presbyterian Chronic Pain Clinic, and a host of other smaller details. This has taken over her entire life. She can't make plans. She can't work. Aside from the infection (which is gone now but the mess left in it's wake is just as bad and only now showing signs of a hopefully permanent correction) her bone grafts and endless facial and oral surguries have really put my whole family through the ringer. It's tough living 1900 miles away through it all.
I hate to say it because so many people do this frivolously, but she sued, and won... big time. It's too bad that the ****s that abuse the law can ruin it for people like my mom who has given up a good twelve years of her life (hopefully not much more) due to a dentists negligence (when she called him over and over to complain about the pain he became impatient and told her to "learn to deal with the pain," and never even tried to catch the
bone infection which is almost impossible to get rid of and potentially fatal...). When I think of how much she has suffered it's hard to bear. I used to be afraid she'd kill herself.
So that's why I haven't been to a dentist in 13 years.
:thumbsup:
