Thankful - Day 1, the dentist

So, in following along with several friends on Facebook, I am going to post something that I am thankful for from now until Thanksgiving. 

For my first entry, I must say that I am thankful for the dentist and for dental insurance.  This was extremely important today as I broke a tooth last night.  Doing something really simple and stupid.  I was eating an olive.  When I bit down to remove the salty goodness of the olive from the pit, I did not think that I bit that hard.  But I heard an obnoxiously loud crack. 

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach and wished as hard as I could possibly wish that the noise came from the pit cracking and not my tooth.  I promptly spit the pit into my hand and saw that I had no such luck.  The pit was perfectly in tact.  I ran my tongue along the tooth and sure enough, I could feel a very distinct (and somewhat large) line from the top of the tooth to the gum line.  If I moved my tongue across the top of the molar, I could feel movement in the tooth.  Ugh.  Not good.

So, this morning I started asking around for a dentist.  I love my previous dentist but had issues with the billing practices and needed a dentist who will bill my insurance company and accept that billing as payment for what is covered under insurance.  My dentist requires me to pay everything up front including the covered amounts.  With high daycare expenses, I don't have that kind of cash flow.  So, I called a dentist recommended by several co-workers.

The tooth was broken and he removed the broken section.  It can be saved and I have to go back next week to start the process of getting a crown.  That is an expense I really needed right before Christmas.  BUT - I can get it fixed, and will have it fixed.  And in the end, I am grateful for a dentist who got me in to the office on such short notice and is fixing my broken tooth!  And I'm very thankful that I have insurance that will cover half of the cost.