Average Jane’s Big Kid

I always thought that one of the positive side-effects of not having kids would be that I’d save money on all of the crazy miscellaneous expenses that kids can incur. Sure, sometimes the cats cost more money than I was expecting, but that’s fairly rare.

Well, it turns out that I’m going to be in for some kid-like expense after all.

My husband went to the dentist earlier this week after complaining for months about a sore tooth. It turns out that his wisdom teeth are growing in and giving him trouble. The dentist is sending him to an oral surgeon to have three of them removed. Have I mentioned that my husband is 50?

It gets better. The dentist thinks my husband would be a good candidate for orthodontia. Once he has the bad wisdom teeth removed, the dentist believes that braces would even out his teeth, and fill in the gap where he once had a molar removed when he was young and poor and couldn’t afford a root canal. He needs either braces or a bridge, and he’s being sent to an orthodontist to see if braces might take care of everything.

All of a sudden, I’m really sorry I didn’t sign up for my company’s flex plan this year.

Obviously, he’s going to go ahead and get the wisdom teeth out either way. I think we may hold off the rest until next year just so I can get a flex plan started first. I don’t know why I’ve always pooh-poohed the idea of saving to cover medical expenses. Heaven knows that between our prescriptions, co-pays, deductibles and chiropractic, we spend a ton out of pocket each year.

On the other hand, I’ve decided that I can finally afford to get Velvet’s teeth cleaned. It turns out that cat expenses really are cheaper than people expenses. And the good news is that no one ever suggests braces for cats.