Life can be ironic

Tweet

For the past several years I have been unemployed or worked at jobs where there were no benefits. For that reason, I haven't had health or dental insurance for about 7 years. About 15 years ago, when I did have good medical insurance, I cracked a tooth and had to get a crown. About 5 years later, the same tooth needed a root canal. A few months ago, the tooth started giving me pain again. I had to scramble around to find a dentist in a hurry because I was going to start a new job. The first 4 weeks of the job involve a lot of training and I can't miss any training time. The Monday before I started the job, I went to a general dentist who I found online. One reason I chose him is that he had Saturday hours listed on the website which I thought would be good in case I needed any follow up. He x-rayed the tooth and said that it needed to come out, but because of the crown and root canal, I needed to see an oral surgeon. I was able to get an appointment with the surgeon for the Thursday before the week the new job started. He pulled the tooth with a good bit a cracking and crunching (and novacaine). When he was done, he said to had knocked a filling out of the tooth next to the bad one and I needed to go back to the original dentist. So I call the first dentist on Friday only to get the answering service saying the office was closed and now on summer hours, which included, yes no Saturday times. So I spend the first week on the new job, which does not include benefits, taking pain pills and in my spare time trying to find a dentist with Saturday hours to find out what's up with my tooth. To me, it didn't feel like the filling was gone, it feels like most of the tooth is gone. My work hours run from 10 in the morning to 6:30 at night but I also have a commute of a hour and 15 minutes. So, I'm trying to find a new dentist with office hours after 7:30 (I wish), Saturday hours, or an office near work open til 7. I found one dentist near home with Saturday hours, but he was going away on vacation for 2 weeks starting Thursday. I found a dentist near work that seemed to be open til 7, but the receptionist kept trying to get me to come at 7 or 8 in the morning, which would probably mean getting up at 5 AM or earlier. Also I didn't want to risk getting messed up at the dentist before work. So I finally found a dentist with Saturday hours about a half hour away from home. I found out that yes, the top part of the tooth is gone and I probably need a crown there, or I could have the tooth pulled creating a bigger hole in my mouth. Another possibility is to grind the tooth down on the other side of my current hole, and have a three way crown put in. We won't discuss the cost of these options now but The dentist did suggest what might be reasonable dental insurance that might help some with the cost. There's no big emergency to decide now so I have time to decide. By now you may be wondering where's the irony in all this. The new job that I'm starting which does not offer medical insurance to start, involves selling health and dental insurance. Go figure. Has life played any tricks like that on you?