DENTISTS. Who needs 'em?

Well, we all do, really. We really do right now, though. Hubby went to the dentist today for the first time since before his mission. That would be ... late 1999. Awesome. So ... knowing that and knowing he had a bad tooth, plus my company giving us crappy insurance this year we made some financial choices during open enrollment to prevent us from going into further debt and we'd all get our dental work taken care of. We put all of us on his insurance, canceled my insurance, and put the money that would have been used for those premiums into a medical flexible spending account.

Here's why. Good dental care can help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Don't believe me? Ask your dentist. It's one of the reasons I went through periodontal treatments before my surgery last year.

So, at the dentist today, they told me I need a crown on a tooth that has a huge filling in it already, but now has another cavity. Awesomer. At least that's the only thing wrong and my perio looks better, even though I've been less than diligent about caring for my teeth since the surgery. I'm working on it again, though, with brushing, flossing, waterpiking twice a day ...

Then it was hubby's turn in the chair. He has periodontal disease, which I figured would be the case, and he has the broken tooth which needs a root canal and then a crown, and he has about 10 cavities. Awesomest.

In one bang (that will take about 3 months to get through all the work), we just used up about $2000 of our $5000 -- which is our cost *after* our insurance kicks in. And it's only January 16th. We still have my echocardiogram in October to cover, plus any pregnancy or pregnancy prevention expenses, and a kidlet here who will probably have more dental work, and if the other kidlet comes home, her too. And I need glasses and/or contacts ... Wooooo.

All I can say is, I'm glad we made the financial choices we made so we can just focus on getting the work done and paying off the debt we already have.

Also, I hope my dentist's kids appreciate their college educations and fancy cars we're buying them this year.