The Scam

I figured out the scam. I also decided that I screwed the pooch by not being a dentist. I should have gone to dentist school.

Here is how the scam works. I go in for a cleaning. And they cleaned my teeth. I am deplaqueified and everything. They also took x-rays.

Anyway, after the cleaning they checked for gum pockets. Gum pockets is how gum disease starts. Anyhow they found 2 small ones. I had more, but those were discovered the first time I went last year.

Anyhow the discovery of the little pockets upgraded the cleaning to "periodontal" cleaning. But I do not think I was charged any more.

The pockets are not very deep. They are pretty shallow. The dentist entered the room and looks at my x-rays and proclaims "I do not see any decay". No shit. I could see by the x-rays I had no tooth decay. How much does Captain Obvious make? A lot. He also checked the depth of the pockets.

Now here is the SCAM. The cleaner said "we better schedule another appointment in a few weeks to check those pockets! You may need an antibiotic treatment. Did you catch where the scam is?

Another appointment huh? BZZZZZZZZZZ. Wrong. I say "well hell, I am here now so lets go! Load up that antibiotic powder shit and lets roll! Get is on!". The dentist says "they are not too deep, but yea - go on and treat them now". Another appointment my ass. All that is going to do is cost more.

The antibiotic treatment is this funky tetracycline like powder. Yes powder. They use this device to "inject" it. But not with a needle. They load up this thing, place it on top of the pocket, and then BAM! Somehow the powder gets crammed into the pocket. No problem. And no "follow up appointment". The antibiotic treatment is $40 a shot, and I needed two.

They did schedule another appointment in three months. Whatever. I suppose that one is a good idea.

I saw the real dentist for all of three minutes. And he probably billed me at least $30 for that. I hope his Bently was the one parked under the tree all the birds were in. I fed the birds some sunflower seeds soaked in liquid laxative just in case.

So between the cleaning, x-rays, tetracycline, and three minute visit by the real dentist - the total was $250. Last time I had a routine cleaning at that place it was $60. That is what I was expecting today.

And it rained today. I was unable to do very much to the boat. The silicone glue idea did not work out so well. The tube was not big enough to get the proper amount of goop out. So I will have to use some caulking. Probably silicone based caulking. I need to have a lot of stuff on the fiberglass mounting plate. Oh well. The anchor rope is marked off every 25 feet. I got that done. There is only about 150 feet total of anchor line. That is enough to get a decent hold in 40 feet of water. I may be able to anchor in as much as 50 feet. But with only 3 feet of line out for every 1 foot of water depth, I would not trust the hold in 50 feet. I have a lot of chain but it is better to have 7 feet of line out for every 1 foot of depth. I can add more line later. I just need to do a long back splice on the anchor chain. No problem.