I took this photo last weekend after the incredible wind storm we had here. This boat WAS tied up to the dock in the protected boat basin here. Notice the dock still attached to the boat (That is the breaker on the other side)! The strongest gust we had down there was 96 MPH. It was a distressing night to say the least. I could here the tiles on my roof being lifted off the roof and then slammed back down. Tiles mind you! And the amazing part is it was on the side of the house NOT facing the wind. The roof was acting like an air wing and the wind was creating lift as it came over the ridge and down the other side.

Anyway, that is beside the point. I wanted to post another dentally related post. I have another pet peeve about dental patients. It happened again last week. I had an emergency patient come in with several badly decayed teeth, one to the point of being totally non-restorability. Several others will either have to have root canals or be extracted as well.

Most of you "kids" are probably to young to remember the old oil commercials (what strikes me as odd right now is I don't recall seeing any oil commercials for a while). Anyway there was this one with the mechanic leaning over a car. He explains how the engine needs over-hauling because of poor maintenance, not getting the oil changed regularly. He holds up a can of oil (back when it was in paper "cans") and says, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later", hooking his thumb at the car.

Lesson here? A little maintenance saves a lot of headaches. So what is my peeve with the aforementioned patient? Why hadn't she been in earlier? I quote, "I would have been in 6 months ago, but I didn't have insurance". So, you wait until the tooth is totally destroyed and you are in pain. Now, instead of paying me $150 to fix it, you are going to pay me $150 to pull it. But that is not really chaps my hide. It is that like many of these patients with the excuse of no insurance so I can't afford it mentality, she really has made a decision to spend her money on something else. She smokes. I don't know about where you live but around here a pack of cigarettes cost about $6. If you smoke a pack a day, that is $180 a month. And many of these smokers drink as well. They see nothing unusual about going to the bar after work and spending $10 for beer ($200/mo - 20 working days. Who knows how much on weekends).

Now granted, some people really can't afford dental work, but surprisingly, they tend to come in when something happens, not waiting until they are in pain.

The last thing about this that gets me is that it is because they don't have insurance. The "I need someone else to take care of me" mentality. I guess that isn't the last thing. Guess what, I do accept some of that cash you spend on abusing your body. And as I have said in a previous post, "For crying out loud, take care of your teeth" If you really feel you can't afford it, spend $10 on a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss and do some PM!