w00t w00t booyah

Terrible things do happen to people's teeth sometimes. I've learned the hard way that while some people can put off dental work and let dental coverage lapse, I can't be one of them. I've had teeth go from cavities to root canals in days. I even lost one to a tooth infection because I was traveling and couldn't see a dentist for 2 days.

When I see the dentist - and I see her often: every 3 months... I have really bad, probably genetic gum disease, and perio-scaling every 3 months is the only thing that has prevented bone loss in my mouth, so far - I take any and all recommendations she makes seriously. It took losing said aforementioned tooth, and it ruining Christmas (I had to have an emergency tooth extraction on Dec 23, we had to cancel dinner at a 5 star restaurant for that evening, and I was in bed drooling and changing cotton gauze all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... it was super depressing) to realize that some suggestions can't be ignored. For me, it's "do what the dentist says, and if she says that a procedure needs to be done, schedule it yesterday."

Perio-scaling, by the way, shouldn't be that expensive. Probably only twice as expensive as a regular cleaning, because it takes twice as long, but your teeth will never be cleaner, afterward. If the dentist you're being referred to can bill it as a preventive measure, chances are your dental insurance will end up paying for the bulk of it. Most dental insurance can be pretty stingy when it comes to paying for emergency care, but what they do cover pretty happily is preventive care. Shittiest dental insurance I ever had was Delta Dental, and even they would pay about 75% of it.