My Tooth is Broken

I didn't just break it today, it's been broken for almost 1 1/2 months now, I think. I went to the dentist around a month ago because I thought I had broken a filling. So I went in to the dentist thinking that they would fix my filling. Well, the first visit the nice, pretty dental hygeinist looked at the tooth and confirmed that I had indeed broken a filling. They didn't fix the filling, but they scheduled me for a second appointment to get my filling fixed.

OK, that's fair. So 2 weeks ago I went back to the dentist to get the filling fixed, and the nice, pretty dental hygeinist took some x-rays, and I complained to her that the tooth had started hurting sometimes when I bite down on it. This somehow turned into a decision that I needed a root canal. They wouldn't do that then, of course. I had to schedule another appointment to get that done.

So I was at the dentist this afternoon for my root canal, except that I didn't get a root canal. Instead, I talked to one of the dentists, and we looked at x-rays taken on my previous visit. He pointed out where I had some decay behind one of my fillings on the adjoining tooth, and you could see the broken part. He didn't think that I needed a root canal, just to have the old filling removed, the decay cleaned out, and a new filling put in. I wanted to say something snide, but I didn't. He also put an ice cube on my tooth to see if I needed a root canal or not. He said that it if it hurt, I needed the root canal. It didn't hurt, so they didn't do anything. I now have appointment number 4 next Friday to work on my tooth.

6 weeks later and my tooth is still broken. I wonder how much money the dentist is billing my insurance company for?