At one point I worked for a company that handled dental insurance for a state Medicaid program. This policy had a (stupid) rule we called the 8 point rule. Meaning that if you had 8 molars making 4 points of contact in your mouth that was good enough (according to the state) to chew with. This rule was mostly used to deny root canals and then approve extractions (cheaper), so it resulted in many interesting arguments with clients. One particular client was very upset that the state wouldn’t approve her root canal and instead approved an extraction. Her argument went as follows, I still have all my teeth (good for you) and by pulling this tooth it would be akin to having an abortion in my eyes (she was serious, I was laughing). I haven’t met any sentient teeth, so I don’t think pulling a tooth is at the same level of an abortion. I also don’t recall ever seeing any anti-abortion protests outside of dental offices either.

Also had someone complaining about the state not approving the implants they put in for (not covered); since it was their belief they couldn’t get laid because of their bad teeth (their breath was also probably bad). Maybe that was the case or maybe it’s just their bad personality. Either way, it’s not up to the state to help improve their appearance or sex life.  So that perhaps, maybe in the future, someone might find them attractive enough, feel pity, or be drunk enough to then consent to have sex with them, can’t help ugly. Maybe hire a prostitute with bad teeth perhaps?

Finally one crazy lady said we needed to provide her with a gun (for protection) and a helicopter (for transport) to a dentist. Her reasoning was because (she named pretty much every ethnic group) were out to kill her and it wasn’t safe for her to leave the house. I’ve wondered if the dentist might be from one of those ethnic groups she mentioned and once she arrived, might they not try to do her in also? Medicaid pays for many things, even transportation (buses/taxis) but I think helicopters are out of their budget, but not psychiatric medications (hint hint), as for guns, I think not.