Slight hijack, pardon.
But, hey, Inky, if I were you, I’d just say “Fuck it!” and get dentures. Much cheaper.
Carry on.
What’s this about planes? Haines? Mains? Huh?
Total Hijack: Is it just me or does it not seem awfully coincidental to others that people with a history of never needing dental work go to the dentist for something routine (eg tooth-cleaning) and walk out thousands of dollars in debt because the dentist noticed something majorly wrong?
And that those people then end up going to the dentist every six months?
To my cynical mind, it just seems waaaay too coincidental. Like the dentist is just ensuring a stream of regular income. “Find” a problem, then the patient/victim’s teeth suddenly change their life-long pattern of never needing attention and suddenly need hand-holding every six months??
Maybe I’m biased. I haven’t been to a dentist in over fifteen years, and my teeth still look like this: 
I hear too many stories of people like me who, after a long, happy, dentist-snubbing existence, finally decide their teeth need professional cleaning, or some other minor attention, and are told that their teeth, previously hard as marble, are suddenly full of holes, decaying, and ready to LEAP out of their owners’ heads just to escape the awful rotting happening therein.
My theory is that the dentists, having been snubbed for far too long by a potential source of income, find reasons for this person to want to pay them money regularly. And hell, if the person seeks a second opinion, what’s to say the second dentist would be any more scrupulous?
I know, I’m very cynical. But until my teeth stop looking like I’m keeping WELL away from those evil dentists! They can pry my teeth out of my cold, dead skull!
Max
I’ll be watching for your dental thread, Maxxxie.
A further word to the wise, tdn: we also will be reserving judgment as to the factual basis of the scenario you’ve described until one of those Mikkelsons gets around to writing a page about it.
Tammi “pearly white lies” Terrell
Hey, that’s like my hobby of flying military jet aircraft. Sure, I don’t piss my money away by actually engaging in my hobby but I derive endless hours of enjoyment from thinking about doing it one day. Ass. Something you like the idea of but don’t commit resources and or time to is called a dream, not a hobby.
Gee lokji, you seemed to have pulled a Bubbadog in this thread too.
Def - Bubbadog v.: to read more or less into the statement than is given.
I’m actively involved in my hobby. I have money invested into my hobby. Have a nice little hi-def theater system set up in the finished basement. If I completely indulged the hobby I could put thousands more into it but my review of finances says that I can’t indulge the hobby to the fullest. If you take the time to think about it a little longer (maybe I’m the pot calling the kettle black here), you will realize that just about all hobbies require degrees of commitment.
So, just like model trains, audiophiles, and baseball cards you can invest a little or a lot.
My point to tdn was that he let himself overindulge in his hobby.
Your point is that you are a daydreamer who seems to have missed the point.
Welcome to the club.
Then why didn’t you say you spend money on your hobby, if you had simply said that I wouldn’t have jumped to the conclusion I did. This was your fault for not expressly stating what moneys you have comitted to your hobby while only speaking of the money that you chose not to spend in spite of wishing to. I cannot be blamed for coming the the wrong conclusion when you say one thing then another, perhaps you should be more clear in the future.
BTW I hate flying. And you’re still an ass for missing the entire point of my post.
This happened to my computer recently. The hard drive was physically fucked. I had to get rid of it. New hard drive, worked like a charm.
This is either a whoosh or you are very stupid.:dubious:
I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and enjoy the breeze.
I want to give a belated thanks to everyone for their support. Indeed there was a bit of hyperbole in the OP. Most Dopers are smart enough to get that, but there’s always someone who takes obviously hyperbolic statements at face value and cannot, under any circumstances, be convinced that anything else was meant.
Back when I was a young conducting student, I was studying Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. There are a couple of ways to start the 1st movement, both of which involve some risk of a few musicians starting a measure early. (In football this is known as “offsides.”) When I asked my teacher how to prevent this, he said, in his thick French accent, “When I was the young student, I ask my master the same thing. I never forget what he tells me. He say, ‘Pascal, never forget. There is always an asshole.’”
As it is with Beethoven’s 5th, it also hold with Pit threads. There is always an asshole.
World Eater, you might want to try soft-boiled worlds for a while.
I’m not ruling out hardware malfunction. These new troubles started more or less when I added a 2nd drive. I swear I did it correctly, but it’s worth checking out as a cause. Ad-Aware didn’t turn up anything.
Maxxxie, the possibility that I was being defrauded did occur to me, but if I had gotten another opinion I would have had to pay for it out of pocket, and like you said there’s no guarantee another dentist would be any more scrupulous. The only real proof I had that any of my problems were legit was an obviously rotten tooth that my dentist pulled and showed to me. It had never bothered me, so who knew?
Nyctea Scandiaca, sorry I didn’t see your post until today; I mostly cruise the Dope while I’m at work (don’t tell on me). I’ll email my dentist’s info to you. I should clarify that my current dentist is not the one who did all that work because I changed insurance plans. I should further clarify that it’s not the dentist who gives me Xanax - I get it from my SO’s mother.
I would also like to reiterate for UncleBeer that it’s quite possible for dental problems to sneak up on you asymptomatically. I think tdn has made clear that he’s not asserting that the problems developed in that short time, but that he found out about them at a financially inconvenient time.
Grrr, if you go around apologizing, how the hell am I supposed to be mad at you?
If he’s apologizing, then he’s a Class Act.
Oh, BTW, BubbaDog, I apologize for my two by for comment. That was way out of line.
I know. It was very nice of him. There’s people on this board who couldn’t apologize if their lives depended on it.
Thaks, BubbaDog.
Apology accepted but not really - here’s why
Its the pit and my opinion is that we get to scream at each other and then play nice the next time. Kinda like politicians only human.
I aso offer my apology for my harsh words. You can accept but not really accept my apology too. And I’d like to retract my retraction and go back to my original position of wishing you the best.
If mhendo doesn’t mind, I’d like to kep my “Wanker” badge for a while. Never been called that one before.
Ah. In that case, fucko off. 
I retract my apology about your apology for the retraction of my retraction of your apology.
And I’ll be in Scotland before ye.
Actually, while like using the term “wanker” i’ve never really considered it much of an insult.
After all, who doesn’t wank? I certainly do.
Bwa ha ha, mhendo wanks!
BubbaDog referred to my computer as a toy. Actually, it’s a Porn Delivery Device.
Hijack: You do realize that dentures are fake teeth, right? And that they can slip mid-sentence? Imagine kissing a person wondering if you’re teeth will fall out. My dad has dentures because he was poor and stupid back in his youth. It is a great source of embarrassment for him.
If he had a choice to do it again, he’d go on a lifetime payment plan to keep his real teeth before he’d get dentures.
As to the OP:
TDN, I hope you take the advice to contact train professionals in your area. No sense investing $1000 in a hobby and then abandoning it. Do you have one of those little towns, with fake buildings and little bridges? So cool. Our gas and electric company has a train display at Xmas every year. It is worth the trip downtown to see it.
About those teeth. My dentist wanted me to replace five fillings that she said were bad. I got a second opinion. He only agreed with the first dentist on one of the five fillings. The other were fine.