What is a tooth worth?

No this is not a Monty Python question.

I was reading the other day about the chemical composition of the human body and quite frankly I am ashamed to admit it, but after careful consideration I realise that in my entirety, I am worth only a few cents worth of chemicals. (no wonder that life is so cheap in various countries of the world)

It was in this vein that I began to reassess things like visits to the dentist.

If you have been to the dentist of late you will have experienced a considerable twinge in your hip pocket nerve when the bill is presented. If my whole body is only worth a few cents of chemicals, then how come that the filling of one tooth with an amalgam filling costs so much?

I have come to suspect that the answer lies not in the actual worth of the items that are being repaired or indeed the cost of the items used to undertake the repair. Nor does the answer seem to lie in the value of the dentist's skill and competence. After all you can go to many other countries in the world where they have equally skilled dentists and get your cavity filled for a lower cost.

So what is the answer?

I suspect it lies in the cost of the latest purchase or acquisition which the dentist faces, be this a boat, a new swimming pool or perhaps a larger house. I am paying for a life style! I am helping to support all of those people who provide the services which the dentist uses to acquire that lifestyle. In short a visit to the dentist is really nothing to do with the value of the service I am getting it has everything to do with supporting the rest of society to live in the style to which it has become accustomed.

This evaluation has completely restored my faith in my own worth. Dead I may only be worth a few cents for my physical composition. Alive however I am worth a great deal to the people who can and do make a living off my corpus.