The Analysis of Teeth

 Dave had perfect teeth for most of his life. He grew up in Wappinger's Falls and Kingston and the city had fluoride added to the drinking water. His mother was a registered nurse and an avid proponent of all aspects of health care.  ( I knew a man who had 5 children and he said they all needed orthodonture. He was of Irish heritage and his wife was German, and his dentist had told him his kids had the large German teeth in the small Irish jaw.) This probably was a factor in Dave's dentition. He wore the braces for years, and soon after they were removed, he got tackled  while playing football which damaged the nerve to his front top tooth. His mother was furious, after all that money for braces and now he had ruined a tooth.

     When I met Dave, his front tooth was slightly discolored, but it didn't bother him, and truthfully I thought it was rather distinctive looking, just slightly different. In his later years, the tooth did start to bother him. I guess it must have weakened over the years. First he had it crowned, but that became problematic and he needed a root canal and some other procedures. After some years, the tooth again failed, and he decided to follow a procedure well-advertised on tv and other sites. That also failed and he was referred to another  endodontist or such. The end result was that his front tooth was extracted and because the other procedure had failed, he had to wait a period of time before the new implant could be installed. 

   During that waiting period, I had some transactions which necessitated employing the services of a lawyer in Albany. That attorney had handled other issues for us and we had paid the costs. He had told me that this latest service would be $175. That was fine with me. Dave drove the paperwork to the law firm and delivered it to the lawyer. His front tooth was missing at the time but  Dave was never one to be intimidated by its lack. He would not have tried to cover up his tooth loss,  would not have hesitated to be his usual outgoing and talkative self. 

 When I  received the bill from the attorney a week or so later, the charge was $100, not the $175 previously agreed on. I paid it without question, figuring the attorney had thought we could use it to pay dental bills. (Actually he was not far wrong because, while  most of Dave's dentist's bills had previously  been for cleanings only, that tooth had cost over $7,000.