"At Your Age, You're Lucky to Have Teeth"

I had my first unpleasant "At your age..." experience today - at least, I think it was unpleasant. I'm still a bit confused. Up until now, when someone says "At your age" to me, it's been a good thing. For instance, my gynecologist will reassuringly say, "At your age, it's probably nothing."

Today I went to the dentist. I'm already not a big fan of this dentist. He spends about 5 minutes looking inside my mouth and never finds anything wrong, which would be fine, except I'm not sure he's actually looking.

He comes in and says jovially, "How are your teeth?" I replied, "Well, I think they're fine, but my psychic said I have a cavity." (This is sadly true. When I saw a psychic in March, he told me the guy I was seeing was a putz - true - and that I should see a dentist because I have a cavity.)

The dentist spends 5 minutes poking at my teeth, then says - "Nope, no cavities." I exclaim with glee, "Ha! The psychic was wrong."

At Your Age...

He then says, "Well, you've got a few spots, but...you're in great shape. At your age, I just wouldn't mess with them."

At my age? What does that even mean? "You're so young, they'll heal spontaneously" or "You're so old, you'll have dentures soon anyway so what do you care."

Then the hygienist says, "That's what I like about Dr. Blah Blah Blah. He's conservative. He won't fill a cavity unless it's REALLY a cavity." Personally, that's what I don't like about him. If I ever go to another dentist, will I suddenly have 12 cavities and need 4 root canals?

Coincidence? I Think Not

Tonight I was driving home with my friend after step aerobics, complaining about how much I hate my dentist. She says, "I hate my dentist too. He always rushes me and he works in a crappy building. Who do you go to?" It turns out, we go to the same dentist.

We both picked the same crappy insurance where you have to get on some special list before you can even schedule an appointment. There are about two dentists on the list and the other guy has 500 consonants in his last name.

One of the reasons I picked my guy was because he was featured in a Columbus Dispatch article for having all this state-of-the-art technology. Apparently he only breaks that out for patients with better insurance, 'cause his office is a dump!