Lately Whoopi Goldberg has been telling The View audience about her dental problems.  She has gum disease.  Why?  Even with great insurance, she neglected her teeth.  She didn't brush or floss enough.  She's in BIG dental trouble.

You'd think I would've learned my lesson.  I mean, we let the roof go, patching it for about six years, before we figured we could afford to have it fixed.  It ended up costing us almost double.

So when I lost my dental insurance three years ago, I was in the same mindset.  Until last week.  Then suddenly, not only did I have a loose crown, but a toothache.  (Okay and I had lost a quarter of a tooth, but since it didn't hurt (and still doesn't), I figured I could wait until it did.)

So, yesterday I went to my new dentist.  She's just down the road from me, with a nice office, and extremely nice office staff.  (And she's nice, too!)  But she didn't have good news for me. 

I felt like a very bad girl.  Okay, I know I should brush more -- and I have with my new toothpaste (see last week's blog), but I'm not a faithful flosser, mainly because my crowns are so tight, the stuff shreds and then I have little strings stuck between my teeth and it drives me NUTS.

But now I have a real problem (gingivitis), the loose crown, a cracked filling, the 3/4 tooth, and a tooth that is so far gone it can't be filled.  To crown or extract--that is the question.

I sure hope there's a really BIG royalty check somewhere in my future.