Even before tdn’s explanation it was clear from the order of events in the OP that he bought the train before he knew about his teeth problems. Sure, maybe he should have visited the dentist for more regular checkups before everything went to shit, but that’s water under the bridge now. He’s stated very clearly that he spent the money on the train before he knew he would have to spend all that money on his teeth, and you have no reasdon to disbelieve this, so stop being a twat.
IANA dentist, but my stepfather is, my mother is a tech, and I’ve worked in both a dentist’s office and a lab. There’s been many a time where someone has come in with their teeth in bad shape. When they’re told they have problems that need to be addressed, they invariably come up with “but my teeth don’t hurt!”. To which my step-father will reply “Well, we can fix it now, and they never will, or you can leave it until they do hurt, and believe me, they will, at which point you can make an appointment with an oral surgeon, whose waiting list is 3 weeks long, and that should only cost you about twice as much. It’s up to you.”
The point of that ramble being that it’s perfectly possible for someone to have some serious dental problems and be mostly (or completely) unaware of it.
The thing is, I was aware of one dental problem back in December. I had a broken tooth, the last of which fell out on Christmas morning. The dentist told me it would be a simple root canal and would be 100% covered by insurance. It wasn’t until around February–when the bulk of my train stuff was already bought–that I was told that a root canal would not work, that I needed an implant. And that it would cost me $1800, which “we can work out.” It was last week that I found out it was $2300, not $1800, and that didn’t include the crown, about another $1000. And that the dentist wanted the money now. It was also that day that I learned about the other cavities and the other root canal. I wouldn’t have known about those had I not gone in to see why I was in severe pain.
Ironically, when I got home that evening, I found a package on my doorstep. It was train stuff that I had on backorder from months before. Also ironically, that’s when my trains stopped working. Computer, too.
Have you checked your insurance policy to make sure it isn’t covered? Have you gone to another dentist to get a second opinion on whether you actually need the work and get a second price for the work? If you’re going to be spending thousands of dollars, it never hurts to shop around.
Metacom, that’s not a bad idea. The hospital I work for is attached to a dental school, so that might be an option. And my girlfriend’s sister, while not an actual dentist, has a dental degree and lots of connections. Those are more options.
TDN-check your grounds. THen re-check them. Then check them again. In most low voltage applications like cars and train sets etc., a bad ground will cause very odd behaviors and won’t be totally reproducible if the grounds are just barely good enough to run and run poorly.
You have my sympathy, tdn. Sometimes life hits a bad spell, and it just saps your spirit. It doesn’t help that the world is full of fucktards who get some sick satisfaction out of trying to point out how your problems are your own fault.
Do get a second opinion about your teeth. There are some unethical dentists out there. My mom was ripped off for $10,000 by a dentist – unfortunately, she didn’t tell anyone in the family about it until it was too late to do anything about it.
Re: your dental dilemma…get registered with a dental school. I did that and saved A BUNDLE in dental work. You can’t go wrong. These guys are closely supervised and they do a great job. Look into it!
That’s not what I’ve heard. I’ve heard that the pain is outrageous and they take forever to do the simplest things. What would normally be a 30 minute procedure turns into a 4 hour ordeal. But maybe that’s just anecdotal.
If I go that route, I’ll go with Harvard Dental School. That way if things go wrong, I can sue them, and they’ll get the best lawyers in the world.
No way. This thread is a classic Pit rant. Genuine emotion and legitimate complaints all eloquently woven together with a sublime mixture of humor and despair. I give it high marks.
Well, yes…it takes longer…but you’re not paying through the nose for the work! I had two wisdom teeth done at a regular dentist and two at the dental school. $125 vs. $17. No contest! Dental school wins! There was no pain with the dental school, but I got a dry socket with the regular guy. They use anesthetic just like anyone else.
Basically TDN whined about his health problem and the fact that two of his toys don’t work. TDN also stated that the provider of his health services would probably not be paid.
UncleBeer posed skeptism (pretty logical to me) that the health problem wasn’t apparent before one of the toys were purchased.
UncleBeer gets piled on.
So tdn
Has a train set (toy) that doesn’t work
Has a computer (toy) that doesn’t work
Plans to bail on money he owes for his health problems (the dentist)
Yet UncleBeer is pitied because he doesn’t know any better?!?
tdn I really hope the best for you. I think that you need to prioritize and work your way out of the hole. You definately have a right to be happy but also consider that you can find ways to be happy that don’t involve large debt.
Priority 1 - Health - find a way to get the teeth fixed
Priority 2 - Debt - No more toys till you can deal with the stuff you owe
Priority 3 - Action not reaction - sounds like the computer has malware issues - you can clean that up. read the sections in general questions. Also, lots of railroad boards out there. get some teamwork behind fixing the trains.
Priority 4 - Diet - Fuck that. Have a twinky now and then and expirement with helthier foods whwnever you can muster the will power.
Well, mostly because he’s being a prick. As if unexpected dental costs were something to be skeptical of. Sheesh, I went out to dinner a month or so ago. Ate a damned sandwich and a tooth cracked. I was looking at a $900.00 crown, half of which I’m paying for, and none of which I was expecting going into the dinner, or even going into the dentist’s office. Up til now, everything I’ve needed done at the dentist has been pretty much covered by insurance. Came as a bit of a surprise to me that a hefty chunk of my income tax rebate was going to be spent on a bitty piece of aluminum and porcelein.
I’m not skeptical of unexpected dental costs. I’m skeptical of the sheer magnitude of tdn’s dental woes which tdn claims manifested themselves in just a very few months. Teeth, even if totally neglected, just don’t completely rot away in six months. And seven new cavities have formed between late Feb, and late May? C’mon.
Well, call it whining if that makes you feel better, but if there’s anything that justifies a little whining, it’s dental problems. They suck.
He didn’t just pose skepticism, he essentially called tdn a liar. Look at his words:
Bolding mine.
After tdn had specifically told us that he bought the trains stuff before he knew about his teeth problems, Unclebeer specifically said that he didn’t believe him. In my opinion there’s absolutely no cause for this, especially in a situation like this, where anyone with half a brain knows that it is possible to have dental problems without being aware of them. The pain that comes with some dental problems is often indicative that something has been worng for quite some time.
Now, should tdn have had more regular dental checkups in order to catch this stuff earlier? Probably. But that’s not really the issue here. To actually insinuate that he’s lying when he tells us that he bought the train stuff before knowing about all his dental problems is just being an asshole.
For acting like a jackass.
So what if they’re fucking toys? Doesn’t mean he can’t be pissed off that they don’t work, or that he shouldn’t have them. And how do you know that the computer is a toy? It could be a necessary item for him? I think plenty of homes in American nowdays probably consider the computer to be an essential household tool, not just a toy.
And i saw no indication that tdn “[p]lans to bail on money he owes for his health problems.” That’s your own overactive imagination. What he said was, " I can’t pay for this shit," which indicated, to me at least, simply that he does not have the money to pay for it right at this moment. He never once suggested that he was going to bail out on the debt. In fact, in one post, he suggests that the dentist has arranged a way for him to pay on some sort of plan. It’s not enough that Unclebeer suggests that he’s lying, but now you accuse him of being a deadbeat, both with no evidence.
But he did know better. Because tdn told him specifically that the train stuff had come before the dental problems were evident to him.
I too can attest that tdn’s dental situation is entirely possible, because I was in a very similary one three or four years ago.
I HATED dentists with the burning passion of a thousand suns, so I just didn’t go - for five years. I figured that as long as I took meticulous care of my teeth, I wouldn’t need to see a dentist.
So for five years I brushed, flossed and Listerined my teeth like a man possessed, multiple times day. Never had the slightest pain or bleeding or any indication that anything was wrong, so I assumed everything was hunky dory. Finally I said, “What the heck, I might as well get a professional cleaning. I can tolerate that; it’s not like there’s anything wrong that needs to be fixed.”
Long story short, I had a laundry list of problems to rival tdn’s, and the dentist’s chair was my second home for the next six months. Fortunately, my insurance paid for significant portions of it, but I still had to pay an uncomfortable amount out of pocket.
Lesson learned, I now go faithfully every six months. After the protracted ordeal I had endured, an hour of discomfort twice a year isn’t so bad.
I still need generous doses of Xanax beforehand, though.
Yeah, I’m a little unsure where that came from myself. I never said I was not going to pay. I’m going to have to get a little creative with my budget, and the dentist may not get his money as soon as he’d like, but he will get it.
