Forget about braces; I wasn't even trying to get braces. All I was hoping to have was a retainer so that my teeth don't get worse.
How many thousands of jokes has the conglomerate told about my teeth for 8 years, even though the conglomerate knows that I don't have the money to fix them?
At least nobody tried to pull out my teeth as practice for the dental students, the way they do for other homeless people. The homeless shelters are full of people in their 20s and 30s who have dentures.
Is the faculty member paid by Mass Health/Medicare for the orthodontic consultation, regardless of whether or not the patient is helped by it? Is that why the answer to the question of whether or not retainers always cost money isn't known by everyone who works there? I thought I was strung along just because I'm too poor for anyone to think that my time is valuable, but maybe it's also about her being paid for the consultation she gives to everyone who's been told different answers right up until they're about to take impressions for the retainers.
Translation:
"Gosh, just wanted you to know that you'll have to pay $430 if you get retainers. We had months to tell you that, and you asked over and over again if they would cost anything: now you know, so don't be mad. Even if you try to walk out without saying anything other than that you don't need to have it thrown in your face that you're too poor to fix your teeth, I'm going to follow you to the elevator and accuse you of being rude because you don't want to talk to me again after that. I know that there will be no consequence to me for condescending to you from the beginning to the end of the consultation, not only because you're poor but also because your medical record has a psychiatric diagnosis and a list of psychiatric medications. The world gives a plethora of fucks about me, and not a smidgeon of a fuck about you. Don't be offended if I don't thank you for my being able to bill your insurance for treating you like shit today; I like offending people who can't do anything about it. I do that all day; a lot of people who work with the poor do. Then we get awards for our selfless service."
Even before I was finally told that the retainers would cost $430, everything about the way that this woman talked to me indicated that she thought my dental problems were my fault. After she introduced herself, she said, "So, what happened?"
What happened? What happened to my teeth? Poverty. Oh, what you mean is that you think that the spaces between my teeth are the result of bad oral hygiene, although I have never met you before and all we have done is to tell each other our names. You think that because I'm poor. Obviously, you don't know about the conglomerate ridiculing me for the oral hygiene that I did every night and every morning in my last apartment, the ridicule about every part of my hygiene routine being to the effect of calling me obsessive-compulsive, because the conglomerate really likes to portray me as being the epitome of the stereotyped vain woman and also likes to say that I'm abnormal. Both ideas of my being a vain woman and my being mentally abnormal make the conglomerate think of me as not having the normal feelings that anyone who is criminally victimized by voyeurism would have.
"Which type of retainer do you think you'll be able to keep up with?"
Keep up with? Does it have legs? Oh, what you mean is whether or not I'm too stupid to take care of it; that's what you mean, isn't it, because I'm poor and I must be poor because I'm incompetent or a drug addict. Lady, I've never even been drunk.