Today Ian and I met another orthodontist, and we received our second estimate. We've seen Dr. S once or twice a year for the past few years, but we don't have an estimate from him as it would cost $250. We met with Dr. W on September 29. We decided not to select his office because Ian would have to wear a headgear for 22 hours a day, the doctor rubbed us the wrong way, and it's farther away from our home. As it was with science museums in OH/KY, I find there is little consistency between orthodontists in how they are handling COVID. Dr. W's office took Ian's temperature and had me sign a form saying he hadn't been exposed to someone who has tested positive and doesn't have any symptoms. Dr. S's office also took his temperature, but their form was even lengthier and included "have you traveled outside the state within the last 14 days." Because I answered yes, to this our appointment last Monday was cancelled. At Dr. L's office today no temperatures were taken, no COVID forms were filled out, one of the receptionists wasn't wearing a mask, and they didn't have the plexiglass at the front desk that seems to be pretty standard these days. Dr. L said that phase one (the expander phase) will cost $2,655. I also asked for a ballpark estimate on phase two, and I was it would likely be around $3,300. This orthodontist doesn't use facemasks. He didn't do any x-rays today. Dr. S and Dr. W took x-rays, but he did call our dentist, and the dentist emailed Ian's last panoramic x-ray from December 2017. He would like a new x-ray. I'm assuming they would have planned to do that this December since it will have been three years since the last one. He also mentioned that one tooth needs to be extracted, which I was already expecting once I saw one had erupted in his palate. His bad bite has already caused some chipping on one of his permanent teeth. :( A friend said she paid a little over $7K for both phases at Dr. S's. We can't know for certain since we didn't get an estimate from Dr. S, but if Ian's cost the same amount, then we're saving about $1K by picking Dr. L. Dr. L's office is about 5 minutes farther from our home than Dr. S's, but one upside is that it's very close to an ALDI. Dr. W's office is very close to another ALDI; Dr. S's isn't near an ALDI, but that is not a factor we're using in our decision, ha ha. I need to talk to Paul, but my thinking at the moment is to cancel the appointment for November 2nd which would have involved meeting a fourth orthodontist. I'm also not planning to call Dr. S's office to reschedule the appointment that was cancelled last Monday. I'm thinking at the moment that we'll start phase 1 for Ian with Dr. L in January. I had budgeted $5K, and it seems like my estimate will only be off by $1K if we go with Dr. L.
We have several credit cards that we use. We have repeatedly had trouble with one of those regarding the number being stolen and people trying to use it to make purchases. Earlier this year we were told that the person also supposedly made a fake of my driver's license. I was required to file a police report that time, which was the first time I had ever filed a police report of any kind. They gave us a new credit card, and would you believe less than one year later it happened again. This time someone tried to charge a LARGE amount for an online grocery order with Walmart. I don't know if it was the location of where the Walmart was located or the fact that the total was much, much larger than any grocery order I've ever paid for in person or on-line, but the credit card company had the wisdom to immediately decline the charges. I don't think I'll have to file a police report this time. I cut up the card once I knew they were closing that account, and I forgot to put one of our other cards in my wallet on Saturday. I don't usually carry much cash in my wallet, but thankfully I did have some because I needed to get some gasoline. It was the first time I paid cash for gas in more than 20 years. It reminded me of when I moved to Pennsylvania in 1996, and the first time I went to pay for my gas I literally didn't know what to do because the *only* way I had paid for gas from 1988-1996 was with a credit card at the pump. I was stunned to learn that "Pay the pump" hadn't been introduced in that area yet. Back then gas was around 99 cents a gallon so I could fill the tank of my car with $10! I gave the cashier $40 before I filled the van's tank on Saturday. Do the credit card companies just absorb the charges when they don't proactively decline them, or do they actually try to track the criminals down and have THEM pay? I'm thankful that we aren't liable for fraudulent activity. I also wish it wasn't such a prevalent problem!
Every year when there is an election I am always looking forward to when it is over. I don't like seeing all the signs everywhere, or the suspense of wondering what the outcome will be. This year I have an additional reason for looking forward to getting past the election - receiving SO, SO, SO many texts and mailers asking me to request an absentee ballot. For Pete's sake, I'm planning to vote IN PERSON. I am really looking forward to the end of that type of text and junk mail. Now when it comes to telemarketer phone calls, I haven't received any regarding the elections. Almost every single phone call from a telemarketer is about the warranty on the van, which is eight years old. I usually don't answer my phone if I don't recognize the caller. We don't want to buy an extended warranty!!!
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