Dental Care & Reality TV

Yesterday, Rosalie and I went to the Midwestern University Dental Institute and were very impressed. We had heard from a few people who had gone there for their dental work that the facility was great and the prices for various procedures were even greater--less, that is. After my expensive experiences with Sun City West dentists, this place was a refreshing change. We were told they have 240 chairs with about 100 in-training students working on any given day, each with an instructor overseeing their work. I met the student assigned to me, Don Sunde, one of the sharpest young men I’ve ever encountered. He took me back to his station where we spent almost two hours going over my medical and dental records, all my medications, discussing what the institute was all about, what I could expect from them regarding my dental needs. I’m hoping they’ll be able to fix my bite, make my damned partial plate more efficient. Anything they can do will be an improvement over the $12,000 I paid out last year for unsatisfactory dental care. My next appointment is next Thursday, when they’ll take x-rays and do a cleaning, then maybe outline what my dental needs will be in the future.

Quick note on Ellen. A few days ago she mentioned some odd reality shows her staff had found. She showed a clip from something called “Toddlers in Tiaras,” mothers pushing tiny tots in beauty contests with one six-year-old spinning around and drinking her “special juice” as she told the camera how much she liked beauty pageants and making money. Six years old. Another show centered on people who collected Cabbage Patch dolls and treated them like their children. Another, called “Mob Wives,” was spookily weird. Another, about strange addictions, showed a woman addicted to the scent of Pine Sol, keeping bottles of Pine Sol with her at all times. She would turn on the hot water to steam her bathroom, then pour Pine Sol in the tub and sink, rapturously explaining how she breathes in the steam and scent. All really strange. I keep wondering who watches such shows, and why they’d want to watch them. I guess it would be an audience of voyeurs, secretly watching weird behaviors. I think I can bypass all such realities and hope I never run into any of the weirdoes who star in or watch such realities.