Only missing a corner

A while ago Logan thought it was a good idea to slide down the slide on his stomach and end up face-first into the snow shovel, chipping his front tooth in the process. It was a small chip and not really a big deal. I didn't think it was serious enough to call the dentist to get it checked out.

Weeks went by and his tooth seemed fine. I had been meaning to get him scheduled for his first dental appointment anyway, but kept procrastinating because stress levels over here have been outrageously high and battling our insurance company was something I just couldn't do. Things have started to settle down over the last couple of days, just when I try to get Logan to drink his orange juice yesterday morning. "Mom, I can't. It hurts my teeth."

I begin finding a pediatric dental office, and call one that I had been eyeballing for a while. It's a large practice with one Dentist, huge play structures and fun perks for the kids. I called and got the insurance bomb dropped on me. "We don't think you have coverage here." Thus began the two hours of phone calls to figure out what the hell we were paying for if we didn't have coverage.

When I first called, I skipped the automated system and got on one-on-one with a representative asking them what our benefits were and if they could send me a list of preferred providers. After this person balked at me saying that we don't have dental coverage and that the company doesn't even provide dental insurance, I told them how much I hate insurance companies and hung on them (not one of my finer moments, but whatever). The dental office was calling the insurance company too and was able to find that we do in fact have coverage, we just needed to verify that it would cover visits to this particular office. We find this out at 5:00pm when everything closes for the day.

The next morning I have Bill talk to HR to figure out our benefits and I call our insurance company again, this time getting connected to a competent person who explains our benefits THAT WE DO HAVE and we have the go-ahead to visit the office we want. Awesome. Battle over (until we get the bill, I'm sure).

I had been telling Logan about the dentist ever since I made the call to get him scheduled, helping to prepare him for the visit. At times he seemed excited, and others he seemed unsure about it all. Once we got there, he was a bit timid until we were escorted back into the play area while I completed the new patient paperwork. Any concerns he had instantly vanished and he was running around excited to be there in awe of all of the cool things he could play with. The office was really nice and I was quite impressed myself.

We didn't wait long at all and were escorted back into an exam room. It was decorated in a fly-fishing, woodland theme that was really cute and Logan felt right at home playing with the toys and jumping up on the table to get his teeth looked at. The Dentist said everything was fine, his teeth looked great and the chip was no big deal (just what I had thought) and said that he wouldn't need to come back for anything other than a cleaning which we were told we could do when Carter turns 1 and can bring them both in together. That is music to a mom's ears!

I was really happy with this visit - both with Logan's dental health and the professionalism of a very cool office. And if Logan ever does something to knock out any of his teeth, we know who to call.