A nice, relaxing stay at our bed & dental
TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Lisa Napoli: It’s old news that you can go on vacation and get a little work done. I mean of course plastic surgery. Apparently the new trend is to get work done on your teeth. Now, that may not be how you’d want to spend your time off, but commentator Jean Roznik has a deal for you.
Jean Roznik: My husband, a dentist, has been offering service virtually free, for years, to family and friends. We’ve hosted personal trainers, dairy workers and ministers.
“Would it be okay if I came for a long weekend and a. . . root canal?” is the kind of plaintive phone call we sometimes receive. “Sure,” my husband says, “we’d love to see you and your cavity.”
I refer to our market niche as a Bed & Dental getaway. We offer crisp sheets, a home-cooked breakfast, followed by a relaxing session in the dental chair.
Sometimes that session can turn lengthy, as was the case when a member of my sister-in-law’s family made two trips from Ireland to get work done.
She reluctantly phoned my husband after a dentist in Dublin quoted her somewhere in the region of 20,000 euros to get her teeth back in chomping order.
As life expectancy increases, teeth are clocking up a lot more chewing time. Most people prefer holding onto their own chewing surfaces over false teeth.
The only drawback is that dental maintenance, just like car maintenance, can be expensive.
When decay runs deep and root canals loom, the piper, or in this case, the driller has to be paid. If you live on either coast you’ll likely pay higher fees for your dental care.
A root canal and crown in California will run you significantly more than you’ll pay in North Carolina, where we live.
Even so, a few crowns in either location might have you considering a trip to someplace like Budapest.
There, practitioners with a lot of accents over their names will provide top-of-the-line care, according to their websites. The only problem is follow up if your crowns crack after you get home.
Still, with dental costs continuing to rise, I’m not overly concerned about losing our corner of the dental hospitality market. Who else provides those little extras like a room with a spittoon?
Napoli: That’s commentator Jean Roznik.
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