Friday, December 05, 2008

All's Well That Ends Well

So the meeting with Dr. Shlosberg actually went really well. It turns out that I didn't fully understand the treatment plan or the sequencing. So Dr. S and I sat down and he explained it to me and so I now have a better understanding that I really don't know anything about prosthodontics or the sequencing of such. Dr. Shlosberg was more than happy to accommodate my financial situation and he is now working on a new plan to split my treatment up into four years, instead of 3 as originally planned.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Tis the Season!

So I've stirred things up a bit. Its been percolating in my mind that I might have to revise my $80,000 treatment plan a bit. 2009 is year 2 for a total cost of $40,000+. This encompasses all of my upper teeth including "cosmetic" crowns for my front teeth. Cosmetic but also necessary as they all have fillings and/or are bonded. Anyway, Dr. Shlosberg did come up with a really creative plan. The problem is I don't want to go into debt and its unlikely that I could get a good equity loan at this point. So I decided to continue with the plan except that I would have the cosmetic crowns on my 6 front teeth done in year 4, after all of the other work is done. I have a meeting with Dr. S this morning, so we shall see how he responds.

In the meantime I saw Dr. Kaufman yesterday and he agrees with me. So I will have two upper implants and then 8 crowns on the upper back teeth to fix the drooping of those upper teeth. Then in year 3 (2010), the lower provisional crowns will be replaced to meet the upper teeth.

I'm sad that I have to wait to have the perfect smile that was the catalyst for all of this to begin with, but financially this makes sense.

Next stop -- root canal. Ick!