I never liked dentists. Every time they call, all I can think is "what are they gonna find and how much is it going to cost this time?" I didn't always have insurance and dentists have always been a source of financial stress for me. So I never got my wisdom tooth removed.
Unfortunately lately I had issues with an old filling and waited too long to fix it because I had no job and no insurance at that time. So I had to remove that one. And while discussing this the dentist also suggested I should remove the bottom wisdom tooth because they were at risk of infection in the future. I agreed to remove the most pressing ones while I still didn't have a job nor insurance.
So when I got to the appointment they wanted to remove 5 teeth. The damaged one and all 4 wisdom teeth. I never recall discussing that but while being there... In the end they could only remove 3 + the damaged one, and I'll have to go back.
It cost nearly $2000 and I still haven't had my fist paycheck from my new job, from which I had to take two days off. And that cabinet knew I had no job nor insurance. I have given them several thousand dollars in the last months.
I feel ripped off, in all the senses. It's been 4 days and my face is still swelling. I had to sign a waiver and I sincerely regret it.
I should have held my ground and told them to remove only the one I considered urgent, and come back when I had a job and insurance, because they clearly don't care.
It will take me months to recover financially from this. It broke the confidence that I slowly built with this cabinet. It just seems to validate my hatred for dentists even more. They're not only extracting teeth, they are also extracting large amounts of money even though some can't pay that much.
I try to convince myself that it would have to be done eventually, but I lived with them without issues before; my friends still have them and they're not dead. I really feel cheated out of at least $1000 that I could have put on food, or rent!
There's a video clip of a song in French with a similar concept from 2003. A child is frolicking and playing in nature until we discover that it's all synthetic, her time is up, and other children are lining up for their time in "nature" too. Mickey 3D - Respire on YouTube.
From a description of the song on Wikipedia:
EDIT: The description is lacking. The lyrics are speaking for themselves and here's a translation of a few key lines.
"Come and listen kid, I'll tell you the story of mankind. At first, there was nothing. Nature was following its course. There was no roads. But man came and elements were mastered. There's no coming back anytime soon. We even began to pollute deserts.
You must breathe. It has to be said.
In a short future we'll have consumed nature. Your one eyed grand-children will ask why you have two. They'll ask how you could let this happen. You'll reply it's not my fault, it's the ancient's fault, but there will no nobody left to defend you. You'll tell them about when you could eat fruits laying in a field, how animals were roaming the forest, that every spring birds would come back.
You must breathe. It has to be said. You must breathe. Tomorrow it will get worse.
The worst part of this story is that we're slaves, somehow murderers, incapable of looking at the trees without feeling guilty, half defeated and totally miserable. So there is it kid, the story of mankind. It's not so nice and I don't know the end. You weren't born in a cabbage, but in a hole that we fill like a cesspit."