Page 21 of Family Bonds- Jarrett & Andi

Andi filled everything out the best she could. She hadn’t been to a dentist in years and had to lie about it even more since it’s not like her dental records could be accessed. Luckily her medical ones were all transferred over into her new identity. Once the hospital knew who she was and could access it, they had what they needed on her. Maybe if she went for a walk with her pocketbook, she would have had her ID on her.

No, it was just a walk and her phone should have been good enough. And it was.

“Here you go,” she said. “Been so long since I’ve been to the dentist. I’ve kind of moved around a lot and have really good teeth.”

“Don’t worry about it,” the woman said. “Have a seat and Dr. Bond will be with you shortly.”

She sat back down and looked at the TV in the waiting room. There were three other patients there and she could see they wanted to stare at her bruised face but were trying not to.

“Andrea Benson?”

“That’s me,” she said, standing up slowly this time so she didn’t get dizzy. It worked. Her body was still sore, though it was getting better.

She followed the woman through the door and down the hall, then took a seat in the chair.

“Dr. Bond will be in soon.”

She hated sitting back like this and feeling helpless, but not much she could do about it.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Bond.”

“Hi,” she said. “You look like your brother Drew.”

“I hear that a lot. You can call me Coy since you work with Amanda.”

“Thanks for seeing me so quickly,” she said.

“Not a problem. Drew texted yesterday and said you’d be calling at some point. Sorry about what happened.”

“Could have been worse. Guess I got lucky and one of your other cousins witnessed my fall.”

“Jarrett,” Coy said. “The news traveled fast.”

She wondered what else was said. Probably not much. She only told Amanda the basics. Not even that Jack was in town. It wasn’t until Amanda worried that she shouldn’t be alone and offered to come over that she said her cousin came to stay with her.

She didn’t give his name or where he was from.

“And now I’m here,” she said.

“Lie back and open up if you can. Just as wide as you can,” Coy said. She did as he said. No reason to say which two teeth were broken; he could see it himself. She realized they weren’t as bad as she feared. “I’m going to take imaging. I know you don’t have insurance. Your choices are a full scan, which is easier and faster than X-rays but more costly. Or full X-rays which will take a bit more time with the placements of the films all around your mouth.”

Money wasn’t an issue, but she didn’t want to say that.

And the truth was, it might be smart to have her whole jaw looked over just in case.

“Might as well do the full scan”

“That would have been my suggestion. As long as everything comes back as I expect, you have two choices. I can pull the teeth and then put implants in. That’s the most expensive option and invasive. I wouldn’t suggest that unless we have no choice. The other option is the bottom tooth looks to only be slightly chipped. I could file that down as long as there are no cracks and put composite resin over it as if it was a filling to prevent cracking.”

“That sounds like a good option.”

“The top tooth is broken more and most likely will need a crown. Both of those things can be done in the office in one appointment.”

“Even better,” she said. “No downtime?”

“No,” he said. “Just the Novocain wearing off.”

She had the scan and then came back and sat in the chair and waited ten minutes for Coy to return.

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