Dentist

We moved here more than three months ago. Three months is long enough to get all the major moving things taken care of. We found a place to live. We signed up for insurance. We updated our address, and drivers licenses. We paid bills. We purchased an iron. And a hair dryer. Major things taken care of.

The three month mark is a pretty good time to look around and see what else needs to be done. High on my list: Find a dentist. Find a doctor. Find an eye doctor.

The dentist was the most important, because I have chronic periodontal disease. ... Maybe. At least, for eight years my gums have been all swollen and tender, and my previous dentist was very careful with my gums and gave them special cleaning and treatment every time I came in. I had special mouth washes, special tooth picks. Special charts they printed for me to take to my next dentist so the dentist would know that I have a known problem. And they've been dealing with it. And now, new dentist, you have to deal with it, too.

So I searched for a dentist the old fashioned way. I used Google Maps. Where is my nearest dentist? Then I compared all the dots on the map nearby with the list of dentists allowed by my extras-insurance company -- medical insurance is available to all here, but adults pay separately for extras like dental and vision insurance. In any case, there was only one guy within easy walking distance of home who was also approved by my insurance company. So I called that guy, and set up an appointment. And I warned the guy at the desk on the phone about the periodontal disease. And yesterday I went in.

The appointment started as most appointments do -- ten minutes late. No worries. Chit chat. Xrays. Little pointy gum pocket measuring thing. Oh boy. Here we go.

But what? The numbers he was reading were all 1's and 2's. Just in December, at my previous dentist, the numbers were 4's and 5's. Because Periodontal Disease. I know that 4's and 5's are bad. But 1's and 2's are very good. I had 4's and 5's in December. Maybe is this something I should not share with the internet, the fact that I have chronic periodontal disease and 4's and 5's in the gum-pocket measurement thingy that dentists do. Maybe?

In any case, I sat there listening to the dentist read off those numbers, and I waited for him to find the problem gums, the 4's and 5's, but he didn't. He worked all around my mouth, all sides, front, back, top, bottom. There was only one 3, on the top left. All the measurements were healthy. Totally healthy! Healthier than they've been in eight years! Eight years!

What happened?

This periodontal disease thingy was supposed to be chronic. How could it have vanished?

Maybe, said Tim, you're under less stress here.

I don't feel less stressed. I just moved internationally and started a new job, for crying out loud. I've been working evenings and weekends to try to get teaching prepped and papers written and to read a bazillion files for the stupid hiring committee. I don't think I am less stressed. 

Maybe, said Tim, it's the altitude. Or the humidity. Or just the fact that we now live in such a nice city.

Ok. Could be. Except two years ago I lived in this same city, in this same apartment complex even, for seven whole months. And when I went back to my previous dentist my gums were worse than ever. So that doesn't add up.

Maybe my new dentist measures differently? But it was the same stick. The same units. The same uncomfortable poking in all the tender places in my gums. How could it be different?

And he found nothing!

As I was leaving, I looked him in the eye and asked directly: "No gum disease?"

And he said that my gums looked fine. They looked good.

Chronic condition ... gone? Just disappeared? After only 3.5 months since my last appointment? And all those charts I was carrying, to show how we had been maintaining my poor chronic disease -- he thought they were interesting, and he took a copy, but nothing. Nothing?

And then.

And then I went to the front desk, dazed and confused, and the guy there rang up my charge of three-hundred and twenty-two dollars, and scanned my insurance card, and -- wait for it -- I owed nothing.

Nothing.

No gum disease. No charge. Healthy teeth. Healthy gums.

Who has taken my real mouth and where have they put it???!!

I think this is good news? If only I could believe it.....