This Thing Called Life: March 2009

So, I've had my fair share of trips to the dentist. It was commonplace as a child and I actually kind of looked forward to it because no matter how bad the Novocaine hurt, at least I got a prize afterward. And then I had a bit of a traumatic experience involving an extra root that was missed in my root canal and flared up 6 years later causing and abscess which led to my dentist re-doing the last root in the root canal and sealing the tooth, which caused anaerobic gasses to build up under the surface of my tooth causing a throbbing in my entire face and jaw. In order for the gasses to release they drilled out the center of my tooth and left it open for about 5 days before going back in and filling it. I could not sleep lying down; I could not chew solid foods; I did not chew on the right side of my mouth for about three months; and I started having mild anxiety attacks every time I stepped into a dentist office. Can you blame me for being a bit leary of these guys?

(***NOT MY REAL DENTIST BUT SCARY STILL***)

I switched dentists and found out that my horrible dentist whom I had been going to from my very first dental appt. as a wee lad up until the summer after I turned 18 was in fact a moron. Seriously, he's an idiot and I'm not just saying that. Not only did he do my root canal incorrectly, he had also missed about 7 cavities in my mouth which you would think would be apparent in the X-rays he had been taking on a fairly regular basis. With my new dentist I found out that it didn't have to hurt have a shot of Novocaine, in fact, I didn't even need to feel the needle going in. AMAZING! However, I still had a minor fear of going in to the dentist because it seemed that no matter how often I went in and not matter how much I brushed, flossed, rinsed, did fluoride treatments, etc., there was always something wrong. Basically my teeth suck at everything except for decaying, which they are really good at doing. This has lead to my enhanced anxiety and fear of the dentist so I've been avoiding going in for a while now.

Then over the weekend it felt like there was something stuck between my back teeth, so I pulled out my trusty floss and as I pulled the floss up a piece of my tooth came out too! WTF? That's not normal. So I got into a dentist today praying for a filling and hoping I didn't need a crown. But as luck would have it, I definitely need a crown. AND, I apparently need 8, count them, 8 fillings. But it's no biggie, I have a spare couple thousand dollars lying around and plenty of dental insurance...WAIT, I don't have either of those things! So when they told me the estimated total for all the work I'll need I responded with a face kind of like this.