Tag: dentist

As mentioned before, I’ve been going to the dentist getting my teeth fixed up after slightly more than a few years of neglect1. Monday started the next round of pain2. A couple more fillings on one side of my mouth and a sealer to try preventing a cavity from forming on a back-tooth. The dentist did a good job of numbing the area she’s worked on but even with the numbness it was still highly unpleasant.

I mean seriously the numbness only goes down so far but the vibration from their tools penetrates much further. Plus there’s the distinctly nasty scent of burning tooth from when they drill. *shudder* And if that wasn’t bad enough, my sinuses have been acting up. Which lead to me feeling like I was choking a couple of times while the dentist was working inside my mouth. See they’ve got this mouth-spreader/suction device they shove in first but if you don’t keep your tongue in just the right place the suction doesn’t work. And keeping your tongue in that exact spot gets tiring, so you move around a bit; mere moments later you’re choking.

On the bright side, I think I only have 2 more punishments visits left to fill in cavities.  Also the dentist office appears to have over-charged me on a previous visit, so I after all the fun I got to leave without whipping out the wallet.  Yeah, I’m just skipping with joy and happiness.  *sigh*

1 What can I say, I hate going to the dentist.
2 When my dental insurance says they won’t pay anymore for the year, I have to start scheduling my suffering for the next year. My pocketbook and I can only stand so much misery before calling it quits.

Throbbing sinuses
Drills screeching away
Constant vibration
Flying bits of tooth dust
Burnt scent wafting upwards

As mentioned previously, I broke a tooth. So I got to spend a good chunk of Valentines day in the dentist’s office getting a temporary crown installed, but for extra fun I woke up with a massive sinus headache. I refused to take anything for the headache before I went to the dentist as I didn’t want to risk any weird drug interaction issues with the anesthetic the dentist used on me. When I went in for my appointment and was taken past the waiting room, I noticed we were going towards a different part of the dentist’s office then I’d been in for my initial examination. I commented to that this must be the way to the punishment rooms. The dentist laughed but did not deny my allegation. I was setup in a chair, had some nasty mint numbing medication rubbed into my gums, given multiple injections of the anesthetic, watched the Colbert Report on a small LCD TV they had overhead; while they drilled, ground, scrapped and poked around in my mouth. When they were all done, I had three new fillings in my teeth as well as the temporary crown. All in all, it has to be the least romantic Valentines day I can remember.

I’d really like to end this post with a bright side, but I just can’t quite think of one at the moment. The closest I can come up with is I’ve learned my lesson and will be making regular visits to the dentist in the future. Hopefully those regular visits will allow me to avoid this sort of fun in the future.

I know, I know. It’s only Tuesday; how bad could it be? Well….

Sunday night while eating dinner, I bit down on something. It felt hard and crunchy. A moment later I felt something poking the side of my tongue, kind of like I had something stuck in between my teeth and my gums. I couldn’t get the offending poky bit free with my tongue. I got up went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and realized the crunchy bit was likely part of a tooth.

Monday, I tried making an appointment to see a dentist. No, not my dentist. I hadn’t been to a dentist in years as my teeth never bothered me. I do brush and floss regularly, so I left the dental checkups at the bottom of my priority list. Part of the reason it was so far down my list is… frankly, I hate going to the dentist. The most pleasant possible outcome of going to the dentist is being told you don’t have cavities and then you walk out with that weird uber smooth feeling to your teeth. Bah.

Tuesday, I hadn’t heard back from the dentist’s office. Yesterday I’d submitted a request for an appointment via their website. But since I hadn’t heard anything and I was tired of my busted tooth poking my tongue, I called them. I was able to get myself an afternoon appointment and headed over at the appropriate time. Oh and about an hour before I started over to their office; snow in large quantities started to fall. [INSERT CURSING HERE] I got over to their office in plenty of time and started filling out the paperwork. All the staff at the office were unfailing polite and helpful but it didn’t make me feel much better about being there. After a short wait, I was taken into the back and had my teeth examined by a dental hygienist.

I have to say things have changed in the years since I’ve been to a dentist. Now the x-ray machine is digital and they have a computer monitor attached to the patient’s chair to display the x-ray. Also they’ve got a digital camera about the size of a ballpoint pen used to take photos of your teeth. Side note: eeeew, cavities and broken teeth look terrible blown up in full color on computer monitors. They also have a new diagnostic tool which measures the density of the tooth to determine if there’s a cavity (and to tell if the cavity is bad enough to need fixing).

The end result of all this new technology is I got to see how bad my teeth are. How bad are they? Well, I’ll be getting 3 fillings and a crown. Wheee!

*sob, sob*