for your VINformation

I’ve had a constant headache for three weeks.

I could hear and feel my heartbeat in my right ear.

If I coughed, I’d get dizzy.

Do I have a brain tumor?

No.

Hot coffee and cold water sent shooting pains into my brain, so I figured it must be a tooth issue.

I mentioned my issues, in passing, to a co-worker and she gave me the name of her dentist – Boris Temkin, D.D.S., located just around the corner from the desk on 48th St. The pain was so great, and the overdose of Advil was starting to not help, so I made an appointment for this morning.

Ring Ring

“Dentist.”

“Hi, my name is Vinnie Costa and I either have a brain tumor or a tooth issue and I really need it looked at sooner rather than later.”

“I can get you in Monday morning at 10:30, will that work?”

“May  I ask, how much it’ll cost, I don’t have any insurance.”

“Well, let’s have you come in first and take a look, if it’s anything but a brain tumor I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.”

At the appointed time, I arrives, filled out the standard history and waited for Dr Boris. He couldn’t have been nicer, or calmer. I think he could tell I was quite worried and very nervous about the whole thing.

Blah blah blah – x-rays taken – blah blah blah – upper right wisdom tooth half rotted away – blah blah blah – major infection – could’ve entered brain if left on it’s own for another week or so – blah blah blah – it needs to come out – blah blah blah – Today.

But, but, I have lunch plans, I want to hit a weight watchers meeting and I’ve got Happy Hour at the Duplex to work… today it is.

“Relax, zis is ze only part zat’ll hurt” Dr. Boris said in his thick Russian accent as he injected the local. “Let’s give zis a minute to vork, I’ll be back.”

As the whole right side of my face started to relax, I realized, I had no idea how much this was going to cost – SHIT!

“I kno it to wait to ask, ba how mush bill dis cost me?”

“Don’t vorry, I vill take care of you.” he said with a pair of very shiny silver pliers in his hand slowly coming towards me.

In just a few minutes with my mouth hardly open, the tooth was removed and a wad of gauze was in it’s place.

“It bover.”

“Da. Sit a minute.” He tossed the bloody tooth on the tray in front of me and left the room.

After a few minutes of staring at the decayed mess of a tooth he came back into the room and said, “I’ve written you two prescriptions, one for antibiotics, take one pill three time a day for the next veek and vone for pain killer zat should get you through za next few days. Ven the Novocaine vears off you vill be in pain.”

“Can I have the tooth?”

“Da, I vill clean it up for you. Vile you pay za bill. I’m going to charge you $250.00 for everyzing ve did today.”

It’s not very often I’m left speechless, but $250.00 for x-ray and an extraction? Wow, a bargain at twice the price!

I’m going back in two weeks, after the infection has cleared up to get a small cavity filled and get a good cleaning, I may not have health insurance or all my teeth, but at the very least, I have a great dentist!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 2:30 PM and is filed under Vinnie's Not Well.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.