bif! bam! pow!

woke up at 4am with a toothache and realized today's the day that tiny nagging turns into an actual pain. zoinks!

glad this happened on a workday and not the weekend, called the dentist & he got me right in. huzzah!

surely it's just a cavity and he'll fill it right up, but the xray shows... a crack. blimey!

the cure for a crack is a crown but he can't crown me with many crowns today b/c his assistant is out, so we make an appt for wednesday and the dentist-office lady shows me the estimated bill. egad!

spent a good part of the remainder of the day exploring dental options and learned my provider is not in the network. bahstad!

so his charges are higher and the percentage the insurance pays is lower. dastardly!

glad to learn the truth about my dentist and glad that he didn't do the crown before i learned this truth, i scoured the in-network provider list provided by my insurance provider and located a familiar name. ah-hah!

discussed the saga with carpooling coworker who turns out to be a patient of the potential provider. shutUP!

called potential provider & made appt, but learned potential provider is on a mission trip and won't be back for a week so the appt will be delayed. drat!

disappointed about the appointed date but happy with how this turned out because current dentist used to be all nice & caring about teeth but now he's all with the closed circuit teevee showing elaborate tooth capping and whitening procedures he performs right there in the office for a small fee. cha-ching!

and as a bonus - my new dentist works at the tooth-of-pain! ppfahahaha!