A small victory...

It is weird.  For the first time in 35 years, I can feel the back side of the front six bottom teeth.  I can do so because I had to spend $50 getting the broken permanent retainer removed.  I had the worst time trying to be civil to the woman who was tending to me because: 1) she talked so much, asking me dozens of questions and stopped working for her chatting and 2) she COUGHED ON ME the entire time she was working.  I fully expect to come down with germs in the next few days.  SIGH.

The other day my sister mentioned that her doctor once talked about our wandering tongues.  I just LOVE that phrase.  What he meant is that when there is something going on in our mouths our tongues just cannot seem to leave it alone.  My poor tongue has several wounds on it from wondering about and wandering all over the broken retainer until I could get it removed.  And, now that it is gone, my tongue cannot seem to leave those teeth alone!

The woman working on me commented on how good the back side of my teeth looked, something I attribute to using that wretched-tasting baking soda toothpaste.  But no matter how much I worked on brushing and dental-picking around the bar, when it was removed, I was left with quite a bit of plaque in a line above and below the bar on the back side of my teeth.  The teeth with the two ends cemented on them were cleaned off, but the four between were left alone.  UGH.

I used a free toothbrush there at the "rinsing station"—gone are the days of water and suction and a bowl beside your chair—but it was too soft to do much.  I also asked for floss and toothpicks because the back side of my teeth were driving me crazy.  Sadly, because my doctor's staff asked me to come early—unbeknownst to her—I went from the orthodontist to Best Buy to drop off my old television to the pharmacy to Walmart (groceries) and then to my GP's office.  So, no time to get home to my disgusting-but-awesome toothpaste and my electric tooth brush and, most importantly, my dental pick.

I am hoping to use a coupon for an economical dental exam and cleaning as soon as possible so that I can have a professional finish off the job I started on cleaning up that plaque.  At least I finally got all the cement grit out from between my teeth.  That stuff flew everywhere.

I had to sign a release acknowledging that I understood that my teeth will move since I did not have another retainer put back in my mouth.  The price was $260 for that.  At first, I was going to ask my sister to loan me the money until I could pay her back and then I looked at using one of those balance transfer checks that came in the mail the other day.  But the fact is that I have to move from trying to figure out how to pay for things to not paying for them in the first place.

Recently my sister put it simply:  You cannot do what you cannot do.

We were talking about medical expenses and choosing amongst those, but I need to stop trying to make things work the way that I have.  I do not need straight teeth.  I just need teeth in my mouth.  Hopefully, they will not move much.  So, instead of spending that $260 that I didn't have, tying up more and more of my grocery money down the road (I am already almost impossibly tight until April making up for spending at the end of 2017), I spent $50 just to have the broken retainer removed.

This month, aside from my slimmed down grocery budget and all my other fixed expenses, I have $188 to spend on non-budgeted medical, household, gas, and pretty much anything non-utilitarian that I need.  Although I am at the end of the second week of my budget cycle, I actually have not spent any of that money.  So, I could pay that $50.  And I will need the $59 that I think I will need for that coupon-dental-service.  That will leave me $87 still to address my needs the second half of this month.

As much as I am peeved about breaking my retainer after three decades, this is the first victory of the Great Recovery Budget Plan for 2018.  I will be glad when April arrives, though.  SIGH.


P.S.  I broke it chowing down on a chunk of French Bread.

P.P.S  My tongue is still freaking out over the back of my lower teeth.  Long lost friends??