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The Ongoing Saga of My Teeth
Jul. 23rd, 2014 02:12 pmThose of you who have followed this journal for a while know that my teeth are like Catwoman: beautiful and often helpful, but ultimately trying to kill me. Beneath my face lies the deteriorating jaw of a 70-year-old. So it's tissue graft time again, although this time my own tissue instad of more corpse bone or robot parts. In about a month, they'll move some of the roof of my mouth onto my gumline to protect my tooth roots.*
It occurred to me during my cleaning today that the question dentists always ask me about "staining on just your front teeth - do you drink a lot of coffee?" is perhaps not about coffee (answer: I drink an average amount for a coffee drinker in the U.S., which I can say with confidence because this is an over-researched area), but a stealth way of asking whether I smoke, a major contributor to gum disease and oral cancers.
Or they could just be asking whether I drink a lot of coffee.
* Following up on my specialty prescription drug cost entry of a few days ago, the lifetime amount of money spent on my teeth is still I think less than my college costs (grad and undergrad combined), but not entirely out of the ballpark. I can't give an exact number because a lot of it was when I was a minor and not paying my own bills, and there's at least one inpatient surgery where I don't know what the insurance company paid out.
It occurred to me during my cleaning today that the question dentists always ask me about "staining on just your front teeth - do you drink a lot of coffee?" is perhaps not about coffee (answer: I drink an average amount for a coffee drinker in the U.S., which I can say with confidence because this is an over-researched area), but a stealth way of asking whether I smoke, a major contributor to gum disease and oral cancers.
Or they could just be asking whether I drink a lot of coffee.
* Following up on my specialty prescription drug cost entry of a few days ago, the lifetime amount of money spent on my teeth is still I think less than my college costs (grad and undergrad combined), but not entirely out of the ballpark. I can't give an exact number because a lot of it was when I was a minor and not paying my own bills, and there's at least one inpatient surgery where I don't know what the insurance company paid out.
