SanDiegogirl

Sorry, can't agree on this one... the particular tooth had never bothered me, my old dentist had never picked up that anything was wrong with it (had to go to new dentist as old one had retired).

Following my experience with the first endodontist I was referred, by a family friend, to second endodontist. He came to the conclusion that the shadow on the X ray might be an infection, but lets wait and see and to review the tooth in 3 months. The tooth has never hurt once since the incomplete reworking treatment. (over a year ago)
I'm only thankful that the first endodontist did not break the crown which was on the specific tooth. The fact he refunded me all my money without so much as a quibble, leads me to believe he tried it on ..... if he had not been so blase about the fact that he had not been able to even get to the supposed infection and 'clean it out', I might have left the surgery thinking the treatment had been a success.

ddsrph

From the first post my understanding was it was causing some problem. If it was just something noted on an X-ray with no history of pain or infection a more experienced dentist may have just made mention as something to watch in future.

SanDiegogirl

Sorry, should have said the 'supposedly infected' tooth had never bothered me and the whole experience was caused by a shadow on an X ray which the new dentist thought might be an infection and the endodontist agreed with him based on him looking at the same X ray.
Now, I'm somewhat more circumspect when being advised by dental professionals that work has to be done......

ddsrph

In a situation like this with a root canal that was done years ago it would be necessary to have older X-rays available to compare to if appearance on X-ray is the only reason to suspect a problem. It would have to have an unmistakable change in size/ appearance from older to newer X-rays to suspect a problem if no history of symptoms.

scrubbedexpat099

A lot of people I have come across go to Mexico for anything significant in the way of dental services.

Bob

Loads of great info. As for places to look at and costs. All going to depend on your budget.
Realistically, you're probably not finding a nice big house with a garden within 30 mins. Natick, 13 miles out is about 40-45 min drive during regular life commute hours, 15 mins in the middle of the day. It's about 20-30 mins these days. Riverside, on the greenline, need to get there by 7 to get parking and it's about an hours ride, and about 20 mins to drive there. Sure, could get the commuter train in Natick or Framingham, but unless you're in walking distance of the stop, you won't get parking.
Towns to look at, well anything along the Rt 9/20/30 I-95/93/495 corridor. Probably looking at at least $3.5k a month for a house, goes down a fair bit past 495. Check out Newton, Needham, Brookline, Wayland, Wellesley, same kind of range going north/south of downtown.
In Boston itself, if the place doesn't include parking, that could be anything from $500-3000 a month, covered, security, etc.
Childcare, for pre-K might have a waitlist in Boston, might be easier in the burbs, but expect $1500+ a month depending on number of days, half/full etc.

bostonwilly

Hi Bob,

Thank you for the Boston-specific info.

"Big" for house and garden is all relative - we live quite modestly and whilst more space is nice I've no desire to have all my spare time spent on property maintenance! For location I want to be no more than 30 minutes commute by bike or public transport from the office, which currently is in Cambridgeport. There's a suggestion that it might move out to the W/NW of the wider city so I need to look for something that will be compatible with that too. I've found a few travel-time-maps for car journeys but not much for bike or public transport journeys, so it's not easy to work out how far I can get in 30 minutes really. These are the kind of maps I found, I've no idea how accurate they are, especially at different times of day and different traffic densities:

• https://commutetimemap.com/
• https://www.mapnificent.net/boston/
• https://app.traveltime.com/

Cheers

PetrifiedExPat

We do not live particularly modestly, but, do live 40 miles West. That gives us a pretty cheap cost of living (I negotiated gas into my wages), low property tax and maintenance is ~8k a year for the yard. House is 4000 sq feet, the longer commute means not a lot to me, it's worth it.

Bob

You aren't biking in the winter...Well about 6 months of the year. It's pretty miserable in the summer too. So don't rely on that.

Commute times by public transport is also quite varied. Chunks of the redline is under construction and will be for a couple years, so parts of the travel may or may not be diverted to buses etc. Greenline is notoriously unreliable, more so in winter months. So expect seasonal delays and cancellations.
Other thing to really consider, some stops have really cheap parking, some are $40-60 a day. Some places are limited to town residences only etc, so if you look at Acton/Concord it might look like there's a lot of parking, but much of it is for town residence. Also, some commuter stops are "express", so stop at limited stops and are quicker. Either way, they tend to have a lot of trains during the morning/evening commute and be very limited the rest of the day and rubbish over the weekend. The further out you go, the more expensive they get too.

Pandemic and so many folks working from home is also messing up travel planning maps. It's all very weird these days and who knows how long that'll be. Rt 9/20/27/30 I-95/93 are carparks in the morning/evening commuter times, but if you can live against the grain, it's less awful.

Also, by big house. It won't really be a big house for that kind of money within 495 realistically.

But probably look over Medford/Malden/Melrose/Winchester area. The commute will suck though, but I don't know that area as well, but it is nice. I know a number of folks that head down from Arlington and Somerville, even Belmont and Waltham, a bit westerly.

Bob

Aye, property tax can be a killer.
I run a club page, so read up on a lot of local town pages and Wayland for instance, property tax is averaging $18.6k a year and they don't even have town rubbish collection. Those houses, a lot of them are also very modest in size.

TexanScot

You shouldn't be swallowing anything when they remove amalgam fillings - the tooth being worked on should be surrounded by a protective dam, and there should be extraction equipment to remove any vapor or debris generated during the procedure.

ddsrph

As a retired dentist I may not be the best one to ask about almagam fillings. I have never researched the subject in great detail because during my training we never had any good alternatives to amalgam. I personally have several amalgam fillings and have never really worried about it. I think it would be helpful to look at dentist health issues as their exposure during placement or removal would be much higher than patients who have a few fillings. As previously mentioned the use of a rubber dam is very helpful for all types of dental procedures. In the Navy they were highly encouraged. Be very careful when advised to remove a mouthfull of fillings for replacement. Improperly placed composite fillings can lead to leakage and serious recurrent decay. Maybe the newer materials are a lot better but I would insist on the use of a rubber dam. They are very sensitive to moisture during placement and the only way to control that is the rubber dam.

bostonwilly

Hi Bob,

Well, where I live now I bike in -10 C, but to be fair it's pretty dry here, very rarely any ice and we might get a little bit of snow once or twice a year. I imagine in Boston it's icy most of the winter due to the humidity and precipitation. Speaking of precipitation - no I don't like biking in the rain! I'll probably end up biking less than I do now.

Thanks for the tips on commuting, housing etc. That area N/NW of Cambridge had been suggested to me by someone at the company.

About teeth: I'm sure that all precautions are taken to avoid swallowing anything, but in my experience (even with a dam, wadding and vacuum tube) I still end up swallowing something, but let's hope it's just good old plain saliva!

Too much detail?!

Cheers

Bob

It's not so much the temp, and they do a pretty good job of the roads as far as ice/snow go, certainly after a day or so, but snow has to go somewhere and it's where you'd cycle/walk usually, for a while...plus the driving is shocking, especially in the winter. There's so many fatalities, you see quite a few of those ghost white/silver bikes chained up to places around town which can be quite sobering.

Plenty of great road and trail riding out in the burbs though.

bostonwilly

Oh, that sounds grim. All of a sudden cycling loses it's appeal.

I don't have much experience of cycling in cities and I'll probably only do it if I can stay away from main roads for the majority of the route. On a nice day with good weather! Lots of caveats!