I just got back from downtown Chicago to visit a dental implant company called Eon Clinics. It's a smaller operation than Clear Choice, but they do exactly the same thing. The difference between the two is, Eon Clinics has a lifetime guarantee for your teeth, and you go to them yearly for the cleaning and maintenance. With Clear Choice you get a pledge to do the right thing, and they don't do the maintenance and cleaning. You go to your dentist. Eon clinics says that to really clean them correctly, they need to be taken out of your mouth. A dentist doesn't do that. But, Eon Clinics costs more, and they are not a nation wide company. So it's up to you to figure out what you want. I still need to look into a couple of other small companies, and also see if I can qualify for any work with a dental school. They've got certain requirements you have to meet. I've still got a ways to go before I'm out of the woods.
Before I forget, as the kids are want to say these days, I'd like to "give a shout out" to the two representatives of each company that walked me through the whole process of learning about everything they have to offer. They both treated me with a gracious respect that is needed in such a delicate and personal matter, that for most is an embarrassing and shameful experience. Unless you've got open sores or lesions, no other malady is quite so public and disgracing. They were true professionals, and I thank them for their kindness and their time. Now if they would only give me a freebie, I'd be stylin'.
Being downtown in the big city is very energizing and exciting. All the hustle and bustle, noise and construction, homeless folks staring at you with their dead eyes and paper cups looking for some change, taxi's whizzing by at breakneck speeds millimeters from crushing you like so many soda crackers, the smell of gasoline and sewer stench wafting through the air. There's nothing like it. Like the 80's punk band Black Flag sang in their old favorite, "Iiiiiiiiiii Love, Livin' in the City!!!!". It's a beautiful thing filled with joy and fear and filth and slicked back hair on a fella named Raul, selling "used" radios out of the back of his car. Only $20 dollars Mistah! Better dan Wal-Mart....Sheeit! You need somethin' else? I get you anythin' man. Anything can happen! There's opportunity on every corner. Money buys, don't be shy!
I don't live or work downtown, but when I first moved here I worked there for a few months. I got acclimated fairly quickly. You have to. You don't keep up, you get run over. I did not like it one bit. I'm used to a much slower pace than the big city. I grew up on the shore of Lake Michigan. Wide open space to the West. After college it was out in Yellowstone National Park for four years. Much more, wide open spaces. In the West. From there I moved to Lawrence, Kansas. Talk about wide open. That's the definition. Although not really that much in Lawrence. It's a university town of about 80,000 people located in the North East corner of the state, with a bustling downtown, and active community. A very hep-cat kinda town. A veritable hotbed of Midwest liberalism. Of course if you drive five minutes outside of town, you are in the middle of nowhere. Wheat and cornfields and farms as far as the eye can see. Wiiiiiide open. No rush to be had. What's yer hurry? So it took a while for me to get my head wrapped around the idea of big city livin'. It was just too fast for me. It was a whole different world than what I was used to. Plus I was commuting two and a half hours a day for work, and I was drunk all the time. It's hard to balance the work, the travel, and the drink every single day. I was some kinda Foster Brooks superman. Who's Foster Brooks little girl? An actor who plays a drunk. Look him up on your interweb. Who is Foster Brooks indeed. Young people these days. Where was I? Oh yes, juggling my mad, mad life in the new big city. What a nightmare. As horrific as my mouth looks now. I was not prepared for any of it.
Nowadays, I like going downtown. As long as I'm ready for it, and have a plan for the day. Everything costs way too much money, so if yer poor you really have to plan it all out. Pack a lunch and find a few interesting sites to see. Of course my recent trip was just to Eon Clinics, not exactly sight seeing. I took the Metra train into town, which is about an hour ride, then hoofed it twenty five or more blocks there, for another forty-five minutes. It was snowing and there was a bit of a wind at my back, but it was a very nice walk. I actually worked up quite a sweat getting there. The offices are in a one story building in a somewhat residential area with their main entrance at street level, but once you go in you descend a few steps down into their reception area. It's a very modern looking space, yet quite warm and cozy with stylish seating framing two walls, and a small refrigerator with complimentary water bottles, and an individual coffee maker on top with a wide selection of coffees and hot chocolate. I took off my over sized earphones and approached the receptionist to let her know my name and appointment time. As I peeled off the layers of clothing and my backpack, she handed me a clipboard with the obligatory paperwork to fill out while I awaited the appointment time. I arrived about thirty minutes early, so there was plenty of time. Other clients I saw were an elderly couple, and later a younger woman, perhaps in her late thirties. She did not smile when we made eye contact, and I just gave a closed mouth grin and a nod. The greeting of the middle-aged and toothless.
After a short time I was greeted by their aforementioned representative, or Treatment Coordinator, as her card reads, and escorted to her office to get things a-rolling. She asked what brought me to their offices, and I told her a little of my checkered past, and that I was looking for dental implants before all of my teeth fell out of my head. She'd never heard that one before, and was slightly amused I think. I explained that I had already been to their main competitor, Clear Choice, and I just wanted to see what they had to offer and what the differences were. Those differences of course being mentioned at the beginning of this posting. Even though their cost is more, I had a good feeling about them. Not that it matters right now, since I cannot afford either, but just something to consider for the eventual decision of who I want to work with. Next came the 3D CT Scan of my mouth, then I got to meet their two top doctors for some more info, and that was about it. The treatment coordinator checked with one of their credit companies to see if I qualified, which of course I didn't, then just a bit more info, and she's going to email me some info, and that was it. A little anti-climatic, but overall a very positive experience. I left feeling quite good about the future, even with bad teeth..... and no credit. It's a long road, but I'm making my way one step at a time. By God. I just hope they don't think I was jerking them around. Because I wasn't. No sir.
And now, I say good day to you. As ever and always, brush your teeth and pay your bills.
No comments:
Post a Comment