I'm not saying it's not my bite, but he seems almost dismissive.

Hard to ignore that. No dental coverage for contractors, eh? Maybe you can cut a deal for a very focused exam/consult. The tricky part is finding somebody whose opinion you'll have confidence in.

Dentist stories:

1) I think a lot of military dental work gets done in the summer when the reservists show up for 2 weeks. In 1974, I had 4 *big* wisdom teeth that apparently were almost lying perfectly sideways -- the hearing in one ear would occasionally drop out, presumedly from pressure from one of these. Soooo. one June day, they sat me in a chair at the hospital at Fort Sill and started an IV for a blast of Valium and Sublimaze........the next thing I remember is my toes dragging across the parking lot as 2 female dental techs -- both of them *robust* women, one under each arm -- carried me back to my barracks across the street. They made it and may be the last women seen in that barracks on official business.

A few days and lots of Percocets later, I was fine. No hearing drop-outs. They apparently had to drill 3 of them, then split them with a cold chisel to pull out the pieces.

A gross part: I never knew, but found out that there are some porous little bones floating around in there supporting those wisdoms, and every so often for a few months afterward one of those bones would float to the surface and I would spit it across the mess hall into somebody's soup.

2) I had a decent dentist in the late 80s who did 4-5 crowns at a point when I had decent insurance. She retired to be a full-time mother. After a year, I went back to see the guy who took over her practice (in a fairly posh office). This guy was young, handsome, smooth, and admittedly emphasized cosmetic dentistry. I told him that I had decent insurance again and that I was looking to make sure that I used it effectively. He did an exam and bite impression and said he would get back to me with a proposal. I went back in a week and he pretty much told me that all of those prior crowns were junk and he proposed to rip everything out and start over. Price tag? $23,000.

I smiled my crooked smile, nodded, left, and never returned. *Luckily*, through word of mouth, I found a local guy who is very nice, very sharp and very on top of things. Those crowns? They're fine.