PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

February 14, 2024

TWENTY CENTS PER TOOTH PER DAY

Jim Thornton in an article in the March/April 2001 “AARP Magazine” – “Dentistry: the Bionic Mouth” – tells about a dental emergency that occurred when he fractured his fourth and final mandibular molar while munching on a heel of Italian bread.  Realistically, he was faced with two options: dentures or implants.

About the only advantage Jim could see to choosing dentures was their price.  Negatively, they tended to shift, rubbing tissues ragged; reduced one’s ability to taste food; and slipped out at the most inopportune situations.  A friend of Jim’s, Sally, said that her father’s dentures “clicked” when he would talk.

In contrast to dentures titanium dental implants have a lot going for them.  They would be like having brand new teeth which would allow Jim to eat anything he wanted.  Their chief negative was their price, especially if he would need four.

Jim found he would be able to cut the expense for implants in half if he had them done at the University of Pittsburgh’s Multi-disciplinary Implant Center.  The estimated price for an implant was $1,780 for each tooth or $7,120 for all four.  To help justify the possible expense Jim amortized the cost over his life expectancy, coming up with a cost per tooth of 17 to 19 cents per day.  For less than 80 cents per day Jim could enjoy the pleasure of having new teeth.

The price tag of $7,120 does not seem so great when it is reduced to just 80 cents per day or 20 cents per tooth.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus suggests a way to handle worry is to reduce it to manageable units.  “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.  Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34)

In modern day parlance Jesus’ advice takes the form of “One day at a time.”  Rather than trying to make it through another week, it is easier to make it through just another day.  In extreme circumstances the emphasis needs to be on just making it through the next hour or the next fifteen minutes.

While reducing a possible bill of $7,120 to just 80 cents per day helped Jim to put the cost in perspective, it would surely have fallen on deaf ears for the University of Pittsburgh’s Multi-disciplinary Implant Center.  They would have hardly accepted a check for $25 for the remaining years of Jim’s life, expecting the bill to be paid in a timely manner.

One of the dangers of minimizing big issues is diminishing their significance.  A primary arrow in Evil’s quiver is to get people to believe that an individual indiscretion is no big deal.  A small misstep can become a slippery slope that leads to destruction.  Disobeying God is a big deal even when it occurs in seemingly small ways.

Reducing a bill of $7,120 to just 80 cents per day helped Jim to make a good dental choice of getting four implants.  As a general principle the concept behind the decision can be helpful, but may mask danger that is lurking at the door.

(This article was originally published March 6, 2011.  Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)