My story begins November 24. 2009 when I took my first drink of my morning iced tea, because I don’t like coffee, but I love caffeine. The first initial pain hit my right rear bottom molar. It literally felt like someone hit my tooth with a screwdriver and a hammer. I quickly realized this pain was not going away two days before Thanksgiving. It was our turn to host my wife’s family from St Louis for the holiday and the next day we would have 14 people living in the house for a long weekend. Needless to say it was not good timing. I truly despise going to doctors and dentist but this was a pain I could just tough it out. It was a pain like I had never felt before. So, I made the call for my emergency appointment.

I get to the dentist within an hour and after an x-ray and the need by the dentist to poke my tooth with his little metal hook. These are the days you wish murder was legal, but I digress. He quickly determined my tooth was abscessed and I needed a root canal and a crown, “oh goodie!” I suggested since I was fortunate to have all my teeth and it was the last molar where no one would ever see it, just pull it. “Oh no”, he exclaimed “let’s save it for the low cost of $2,888”. “Sure doc lets”, I replied, even though I still thought that it was not a great idea. So, I come back as instructed the next day, as family was arriving and sat in the dental chair for 4 straight hours with my mouth propped open like the hood on a ’57 Ford being worked on by a shade tree mechanic. Thankfully I had my FREE Discount Card and only had to pay $1,460 versus the $2,888 retail price.  I was also thankful for the nitrous oxide or laughing gas, which made the event a little more pleasurable.  My Thanksgiving meal now consisted of soft food, mashed potatoes, dressing and pie filling, since I was instructed not to chew anything on the right side of my mouth for one week. Being a fat guy who loves Thanksgiving dinner like a fat kid loves cake, not fun.

Now let’s fast forward to July 27, 2012. On a routine trip back to the dentist, it is now discovered the root canal of that same tooth is still infected and needs to come out. “WHAT!” This was my idea all along. Let me get this straight the $2,900 fix didn’t take and now I need to have it pulled and put in an implant for an additional $3,248? So, just pull it and the heck with the implant. Now I learn something. If a tooth is left with no corresponding tooth below it, the tooth will actually grow into the space.  Now I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains and had seen this phenomenon, known as “long in the tooth”. I never knew why until now. By the way, the tooth brush was invented in my area of the country. We know this because had it been invented anywhere else it would have been called a teeth brush, but I digress.  So, now this one tooth is at $6,135 of which with my FREE Discount Card I thankfully have to pay only another $1,680 for a total savings of $2,996, which is still ridiculous for one tooth!

We have all heard the story of the cobbler’s kids have no shoes. The insurance agent should have bought his own Dental Insurance . Oh well expensive lesson learned.

“Remember, you can’t run sausage backwards through a meat grinder and get the pig back.”—Tim Wilhoit

yourfriend4life.com

Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.