Last night I went to see my doctor, Dr. S. He felt it was time to see me again, so Sparky drove me to his office after work. Dr. S. worked on some stomach problems that started yesterday afternoon, and then also corrected some misalignments in my head, neck, and upper back. He told both of us he feels we've made it past this last problem, and he thinks I'm on my way to finding many good days coming up. He assured us there will still be some bad days, but he's confident that I'm on an upward curve. I'm really hoping so. It's been a long haul, and I'm really tired of feeling badly most of the time.
This morning I went in for my 4th of 6 laser treatments. There's a marked amount of less pain in the jaw and extraction area, and my head doesn't hurt as often or as much. I'm certainly enjoying that, since the pain from the infected tooth was horrendous. Dr. S. is helping me out daily through email with offering advice for pain management as well.
The reason why I titled this particular entry the way I did was to bring this all into perspective. In previous posts I've talked about nutrition for good teeth. I've mentioned how important it is to take care of teeth by eating right and having composites instead of amalgams placed in decayed teeth, and encouraged no root canals. I know the reasons most people choose amalgams anyway, but I want to encourage you to think out of the box in your reasoning. I know insurance companies won't cover for composites when amalgams can be used. I know that amalgams are cheaper than composites when you don't have insurance. PLEASE, think about it long term though, and not just short term when your dentist tells you he's going to place amalgams. It may seem wisest to do the amalgams at the time, but consider the costs of health care after amalgams have been placed. Let me explain with an example, me.
Amalgams were placed in my teeth every time I had decay because insurance paid for it. We didn't have any costs out of pocket, which was nice. But as I got sick, the doctor visits and emergency room bills became so many we couldn't count. And now that I'm having the amalgams all replaced, along with crowns with amalgam under them, and root canaled teeth retreated, our out-of-pocket costs in the last 2 1/2 years have skyrocketed. In the last year alone, we have spent over $8,000 in medical and dental costs. That doesn't include the previous 1 1/2 years, and I'm not done yet. I have at least another $6-7,000 more to go in dental bills.
Okay, so now some of you are thinking "But I'm not sensitive to mercury. I don't show any signs of anything that would tell me I'm mercury poisoned". If you have one ailment you are plagued with that your doctor can't explain - he may be able to remedy it by medication or surgery or whatever, but he can't tell you how it started, then please think long and hard about those silver fillings you have, or that root canaled tooth you have, or the dentures you have. I'm begging you to think about them! And I beg you to think twice before your dentist wants to place amalgam in your or your child's or your loved one's teeth. TELL HIM (or her) NO, PLEASE!!!! Send a message to the ADA that we're not going to stand for it any longer!!! Please pay the out-of-pocket expense now while it's only $50 instead of having to come up with $1000's of dollars later to fix a health problem it created.
I think I'm done begging now. :)
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