Around April of this year, I finally got a credit card (always put it off ’cause of the dangers it can lead to). Well this was a CareCredit card, for the sole purpose of things like my eye glasses and dentist. What sucks, Nov. 17, I got a letter saying it was closed, basically due to inactivity. I so far only made on purchase, and paid it off a few months ago, but was gonna use it for my dental appointment, which just so happens to have fallen on Nov. 17 as well. Hmm, great timing, huh?

Now my visits are being paid right from my checking instead, which sucks, ’cause well, financially, it sucks for everybody (unless you’re extremely rich, I see it as a person who was extremely rich is not extremely well off, the extremely well off is nicely well off, the nicely well off is doing fine, the doing fine is now holding on, and the holding on is scraping by, and the scraping by is literally screwed.)

I had a teeth cleaning today, and usually I’ve been sort of well off, but with hours cut back where I work, I’ve been paying even more closer attention to where I spend my money on, more so than before. $107 it was, $68 for the actual cleaning (brutal, BTW, my teeth still hurt), and then there’s $39 for the actual dentist to examine my teeth (usually done before, I requested it not get done but there were concerns, however it was). Five damn minutes to basically confirm what the hygienist already was thinking, that cost $39. Seriously?

Not to mention, when I was a kid, I didn’t brush my teeth twice a day (hell, I actually didn’t brush them, sometimes maybe I did a once a month). What happened, okay, After a good 14-so years not routinely brushing in anyway, I got only ONE tooth that decayed so bad it had to be removed, and another with a fairly large cavitiy, and several little cavities, that’s it. Now I do the whole twice-a-day, and follow with Listerine, and every now and then, I use a tooth pick to just scrape near the gumline (consider it my way to scrape plaque and whatever). Still getting cavities, and a lot more troubles, especially when I got the braces, the way the teeth moved, it made my front bottom teeth, I guess slide a little out giving the appearance of receding gumline. NEVER had that issue until I got braces, hmm? Yet they’re gonna give me this crap that it is me not brushing right or whatever. Screw that, ’cause I used to not brush and I never had that problem. Now I’m not saying to not brush, just be careful with BS from the dentists.

‘Cause now I got to spend $132 for fillings, then another $132 for another batch of fillings, and some point in time this really, really expensive thing, a crown or something, because one of my oldest fillings is NATURALLY decaying. Maybe money could’ve been saved a long time ago by bypassing fillings that naturally deteriorate.

I also feel convinced that there is something in toothpaste that slowly screws your teeth up so you go to the dentist. Call me crazy or a conspiracy theorist, I don’t care, it’s just my opinion to how pissed I am. $107!!!! $39 for a five minute, (barely five minutes?) exam. People say vets overcharge, but my dog gets shots, her blood drawn and analyzed, plus the whole stool analyzing as well, her teeth, ears, and eyes a quick check, plus they check her heart (slight murmur, nothing serious), and it being yearly, I get her Heartworm meds, so, I think last time it was near $200, but wasn’t over. Just glad I didn’t get the X-Rays done, ’cause seriously, do they really need to do an x-ray of my mouth every year?

Okay, general ranting done, thanks for actually reading this, and if you have a similar bad experience with dentists (or orthodontists), please, post a comment.

It only happens every now and then, but I notice that when I want to check my account online, it’s “Temporary Unavailable.” Now I’m not gonna say which bank, but I have a feeling it happens to all. They tend to have maintenance done in the wee hours, b/c, yeah, I guess it makes since logically, but maybe every now and then, piss off the morning people. And it’s not just Banking. when I remember and decide to pay maybe a credit card bill, again, I get a “Downtime” message of some sort.

It really is annoying, for me at least.

Just pointing something out.

Head on over to About.com’s Web Design portion with a nice little ASCII chart so you can say 72º instead of spelling out 72 degrees. Or, how about correctly spelling some spanish words, by actually saying piñata instead of pinata.  Don’t know if this stuff is ever a problem, but I’m bored today, and found this chart useful for my previous post today so I thought I’d mention it.

Yep, the little things people don’t remember from math.  How to convert miles into kilometers.  Or how about “what the hell is 24 degrees Celsius?”  Well, if you ever need a little help with deciphering some tough measurements, well the Online Converter is there to help.  BTW, 24º C is 75.2º F.