Why I love my dentist

I'm in the middle of some dental work, meaning that last summer when I actually had money I started getting my teeth taken care of -a really thorough cleaning, 4 deep fillings, and two root canals. Root canals take multiple visits so I ended up seeing the dentist every other week from June to September to get everything done. Except it never all got finished. By the time I was in the middle of my second root canal I ran out of insurance money for the year, and after that we lost our insurance, so my #15 (back, top left) tooth has had a gaping hole in it for 9 months.

Because my tooth is hollowed out food naturally gets stuck in there (especially peanuts). I remedy this by using 20 or so toothpicks every day. I have toothpick dispensers all around the house and in my purse -I use them constantly. Then last week I was picking something out of my teeth and something came out that wasn't supposed to -a bit of the pulp cap that separates my tooth's roots from the outside world. I was in excruciating pain Saturday morning -all I could do was cry really, the pain was so bad, and dentist's offices are never open on the weekends. I've spent the last two days taking tylenol and coating my gums with anbesol (sweet blessed anbesol) while I waited until I could make an appointment.

Here's why I love my dentist's office and why you should go there too:

1) I have not been to this dentist in 9 months, but the second I told Judy the receptionist my name she remembered exactly who I am.

2) She immediately went to go get my chart to see what work had been done on the tooth in question. She didn't hassle me about cleanings or six month checkups.

3) At the end of every visit Judy schedules your next appointment, tells you what's next in your treatment schedule and exactly how much it's going to cost. Absolutely no surprises -every time I came for an appointment I knew how much it was going to cost me. At my home dentist I once went in and ended up having a surprise root canal done for $1500. That was really upsetting at the time.

4) The dentists themselves are really nice guys -competent, funny, very good at what they do. They're also very understanding -I have a wisdom tooth that needs to come out- it keeps getting infected, but instead of lecturing me about it they deduced that it was a financial problem and let it go. I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow where they're going to check out my tooth, hopefully give me a massive dose of anything to stop the pain and discuss options.

5) I just like the feel of their office. It's small and doesn't look too modern -I don't like offices that try to make everything look super high-tech. Basically, I don't get the vibe that my dental work is paying for my dentist to have a yacht. Mainly I like Judy. Whatever they're paying her it can't be what she's worth.

My dentist is Dr. David G. Lee. Look him up.