Dentistry is a racket. A cash cow for white collar criminals. It's a medical fact that a good number of health complaints can be traced to dental problems. Most people learn this firsthand over the years through experience. Many doctors tell their patients this at some point. But most dentists are unaware of the connection of dental health, and good dental work, (yes, good dentistry) to a person's overall health.

You can test this by visiting most any dental office, a standard dentist, even a so-called plastics loving biological dentist (as though plastics are a biologically compatible material). Go in complaining of migraine headaches or a neck ache that coincided with some previous dental work and most dentists will not tell you the headache or neck ache could possibly be caused by bad dental work but that you might need more dental work to solve the problem. There is no such thing as bad dental work in the minds of dentists, there is only more dental work, more appointments and more cash out of your pocket.

Have you noticed how the prices of dentistry have skyrocketed the past few years? It's probably because people are more and more aware of the scam being perpetrated by dentists and they simply either do not go to the dentist anymore and even refuse to take their kids. And that empty waiting room you walk into does still need to be paid for. Less clients for bigger bucks does the job. Or maybe it's the competition between dentists for which has the most expensive BMW, hybrid vehicle or the biggest house. That does need to be paid for too.

I will never forget my first visit to a certain dentist. I hadn't been to a dentist in about 3 years. Can you imagine that? 3 full years! How horrifying, the receptionist's look told me. They hurried to get me on the books. I was led into the bucket seat and strapped in with a bib. Then a dentist I didn't even have an appointment with came in and gave me a sales pitch about veneers, without ever even having examined my teeth.

'Would you like to consider veneers?' he asked politely.

'What are veneers?' I asked.

He opens the packet in his hand and flashes me with a series of tooth shaped plastic items.

'What are those, fake fingernails for your teeth?' I asked.

'Well sort of but they look great', he said. 'Look', he said as he opens his mouth and smiles widely showing me one of the grossest fake fingernail jobs I have ever seen, on his teeth no less. Big long fake teeth, way out of proportion for the guy's mouth. Of course I realize in real life he must go here and there about his daily business and now and then he certainly shows people his new fake teeth. It must be out of simple common courtesy no one had ever told him how terrible they looked. Perhaps it was pity.

'No thanks', I said.

But he didn't leave. He continued on with his sales pitch about the benefits of his veneers. This must have been successful for him before. He may have learned this sales technique in dental school, if someone isn't an easy sell, keep pushing your product. Find an emotional way in to their wallet.

He said, 'Let me see your teeth'. I smiled briefly. all teeth still existed. They weren't brand new but they were the real thing, durable and didn't need expensive maintenance, just some simple daily good habits, like brushing and flossing.

'There are spots on your teeth', he said.

'Where?' I asked.

'Well, right there is one,' he pointed to teeny tiny little spot of coffee stain that I could go home and polish off with my Oral B electric toothbrush in about 2 minutes.

'And your teeth are not perfectly white either', he continued.

Well that was enough. Natural teeth are never perfectly white, it was obvious to me that despite this guy having a dental license he was a bit confused about teeth.

I said to him 'Your fake teeth don't look so hot you know, kind of like buck teeth on a little rabbit. Do those veneers protect your teeth from cavities?' I asked.

'Well, no', he admitted.

'So what's the point?' I asked. 'Do you just glue them on and what happens if they fall off? What do you have holding them on anyway, fake fingernail adhesive?'

'Pretty much,' he said, 'but they're on there real good and they don't fall off easily. We grind the teeth down a little bit to make room for the veneer and roughen the surface of the tooth to attach to the glue better.'

'Ok, that's enough' I said. 'There is absolutely no way i would ever grind down my teeth to put plastioc fakes on top of them. and besides, I'm allergic to fingernail adhesives.'

'Oh', he said, packing up his little demo kit and then he left and my new dentist waltzed in.

This was sure to be an impressive group. I should have had the sense to leave immediately before all my teeth trouble began.

They took x-rays. The new dentist poked around with his pick. He was bit rough and I told him so.

'What's this' he says looking at the x-rays. Then he starts the drill up and before I even knew it he was drilling into a perfectly good tooth that I had just spent a couple hundred hundred bucks on a few years previously to get a really nice filling by an expert dentist I had really loved in our old town.

It was all downhill from there. Two months later on a follow-up visit the new dentist tells me, 'it looks like that tooth (the one he drilled into) is going to need a root canal.'

I should a have the sense to leave immediately. I declined the root canal for the time being. He picked around some more. Twist twist twist.

'Ow', I said, almost jumping out of the chair, 'You know that really hurts.'

'Just checking to see if these cracks in your teeth back here are very deep. Don't be chewing on ice or anything.'

He fired up the drill again and did something to a tooth closer to the front. I got home and looked in the mirror, that's weird i thought, i don't recall my teeth being uneven like that or perfectly straight along the edges...hmm, it didn't look good my teeth didn't match pairs anymore, some unrequested and unneeded filing seemed to have taken place...

Two weeks later one of my molars cracked in half where he had given it a good sharp poke and twist. who needs to chew on ice with dentists like that around? I can't think of anything a person can do in a normal day that could compare to that poke and twist stuff he did. No big deal I guess it was to him. Shucks in case of anything they could just do veneers or crowns something. fix my uneven teeth that were perfectly symmetrical the first time I met him, put crowns on any teeth he had hammered on. Amazing how did it all happen? No one knows, no one, not the hygenist, not even the dentist. I had to admit, this dentist was really good at finding problems my previous dentist never knew existed.

I went in again after the tooth cracked. I told the hygenist the tooth he had poked real good cracked and that he should fix it for free. Thing is, the hygenist said, it was my fault the tooth cracked in half. After all, he wasn't even there when it happened so how could he have cracked that tooth?

'You really do need a crown on that tooth' the dentist told me. At a mere cost of several hundred dollars for me. Per tooth. he said, and he continued 'You really should do more than just that one...'. No big deal, nah no big deal, I don't have to buy food to eat I can suck on the fake teeth instead. Don't have to pay the electric bill. Just camp out at the dentist's office. I could take my notebook and run the business from there too. That's it, that must be what they wanted. A merger of sorts. I wondered if they had room in the closet for all my daughter's clothes. An extra telephone line for her personal use...

They unstrapped the bib and I got up to leave. I was walking out, my head spinning a bit thinking about the possibility of this merger.. that couldn't be it... there wasn't a room for my daughter, no showers in the bathrooms or anything... where would we put the cat's litter box?

'You forgot to pay!' the receptionist yelled after me as I grabbed the doorknob to leave.

'Oh sorry' I said and headed back in. That was it. Ok now I got it. The merger, the money, access to my bank account, that was the merger they desired. At least they went about it politely one little problem at a time with a smile every moment.

I paid the receptionist.

'Can I book your next appointment now?' she asked. 'Aren't you going to have that tooth fixed?'

'Which one? This one?' I asked pointing to the tooth in front that was mysteriously filed by someone no one can locate.

'Or this one that he wants to do a root canal on?', I said pointing to the one he had drilled into that didn't have any problems previously.

'Or do you mean this one? I said, pointing to the molar that had mysteriously cracked in half.

'No, not right now, I'll call you', I said and left. I had to rush home and make some money to pay for all these dental appointments. I never had any idea my teeth were in such bad shape.