Bad Luck Tooth

Not the best day yesterday. 2nd half of root canal cause by a cracked in half tooth. Let's just say, I am finding a new dentist.....

No more wisdom for me.

I like to moan and groan about my teeth a lot. More specifically, my dentist. But this post will be moan and groan about the dentist free! But it shall still all be about my teefies! Or the lack there of now. Two yanked five years ago. Two more yanked on Thursday. See? Proof!
Tim didn't have to work til 9:45, and my appointment was for 8am. Its not like its brain surgery, aka, it super quick, so he drove me to the appointment, met Mom there. The nurse was beyond amazing, really nice and just awesome in comparison to the heinous ladies at my dentist. Especially when I was one of "those" patients, and asked if I could get the IV line in my hand instead of my elbow. I felt bad, but it just eases my mind a lot. No problems. Waited maybe three/four minutes for the doctor. Lovely man. I asked right away about how soon I could work out, and he seemed surprised, but amused by it.

Our only other conversation was me asking if I could have the teeth if they came out whole (yeah, I know, its sick, but whatever). My arm hurt and then burned when he injected the sleep stuff. Then my wrist felt like someone snapped it, but then I felt it hit my heart and spread crazy fast, I remember maybe two or three images between that sensation (8:10am at the latest) and waking up on my couch at noon. Trying to write on a piece of paper. The car. Those two images are literally like someone took a picture of the event, and then showed me once, three months ago. So those are super fuzzy. I remember slightly better walking in the garage. Then Tim coming in and telling mom he bought pudding and changing my gauze cause apparently I kept saying that I was choking.

Thats it. Then noon. Not five minutes after I woke up, my GLORIOUS Mommy came over with a marshmallow peach shake. Total treat of awesome.Even though I didn't eat it until 4 or 5. She stayed for maybe 20 minutes. But once I woke up, I was totally awake. No more lethargy. Just very cozy on the couch. Complete with round the clock care by a very attentive nurse.
Tim later said that when they got taken back to the recovery room, I apparently asked for my teeth about every five minutes, and then as soon as the doctor came in to talk to mom and Tim, I asked him AGAIN when I could work out. I still have my paper of me trying to communicate. Lots of squiggles. Pretty much every legible scratch involves me liking drugs. One is just a heart with drugs written in it. And another says, David, I like drugs. And I do not remember a single part of it. Ill just be thankful for that part.

My mouth barely hurt, but maybe only slightly more than an aggressive dentist visit. Tim didn't force drugs on me as soon as it was over, knowing I would just pass out anyway, and by noon I decided it wasn't bad enough yet to just take them. So I didn't, and never ended up taking any at all that day, which pleased me, since I havent actually taken a painkiller in probably a few years. Although yesterday morning, waking up, after having probably clenched my jaw all night...I popped those babies in like candy!

A side effect I didn't expect was how bad my hand and arm hurt. I have a tiny bruise and a rather large prick hole on my hand from the injection, but my arm has been pretty nasty feeling all day, all the way up to the elbow really. Like I had held my arm up and it just got blindsided by someone in a Geo Metro. A small, yet still large metal automobile. But no puffy face! At least I don't think so. Tim says a little bit, but I sure can't tell.
So that's that. Four teeth out. Here's hoping I'm not a shark relative and won't be finding any more rows of teeth back there anytime in the near future....or ever.

Dentist Doom

This entry includes the sentence: My mom is just excited cause I will draw her pictures that resemble a four year olds masterpiece while still totally drugged up and seeing unicorns again. (See? Now you want to read it).

Last week I went to the dentist. I have NEVER had even a neutral experience there. See: Bruising and Torture.

And of course, this past visit was no different. I actually was meant to go in quite awhile ago (its probably been a year), but with our New Zealand extravaganza, I just kind of ignored it. Well, my top wisdom teeth are all the way in, and the only way to get them out is to get a referral. So once again, suckered into the dentist.

That being said, when I got my bottom wisdom teeth out near a decade ago, he told me that there were no top wisdom teeth on the x-rays, and by that age, they should be at least visible in x-ray by now, so I had been lucky enough to escape top ones. CLEARLY WRONG.

There's more to that part of the story, but I feel like I should share the beginning of my lovely day at the dentist. It's typical to be in the office for close to two hours between all the waiting between steps that you have to do at my dentist, he beyond overbooks and is always late. But I arrived around 9:50 for my 10am appointment. Checked in, sat down.

Waited. 10am hits. Two guys walk in within five minutes of each other, both are taken back to their rooms before they can even sit down in the waiting room. I get annoyed that I have been there ten minutes and they just get to walk in. So I go up and "check" to make sure my appointment was at 10 (read: reminding the community college graduate behind the desk that I was still waiting).

She responds, "It's only 10:05"
"Well, yeah, but those two guys walked right in so I just wondered...."
"They have different hygienists than you, yours will be done soon"

All with immense attitude. I sat down and contemplated the concept of pre-assigning the hygienists and the complete annoyance of such practice.

Finally being shown into a room, forced into small talk where I showed my heinous side of how unhappy the dentist makes me in order to shut the woman up so I don't have to talk with her hands in my mouth, I tell her about my top wisdom teeth. She pulls up my x-ray and says,

WAIT FOR IT

"Oh yes, I see your bottom left tooth poking through"

Yup. Remember up to the top of the story that I had my bottom wisdom teeth removed years back. They don't exist. And this moron of a lady is claiming to see them on my x-ray. I swear its to get me to like her and stop being so angsty.

I don't care. I judge her ferociously and continue the rest of my visit. Ugh.

Then there was quite a glorious argument with the lady scheduling the surgery about my insistance about going under during the extraction. I think by the end of it the lady understood that if I was this bitchy awake and at the END of appointment, no one should have to deal with me during the process of terrifying me half to death and making me bleed from the mouth.

My mom is just excited cause I will draw her pictures that resemble a four year olds masterpiece while still totally drugged up and seeing unicorns again. The humor she finds in my pain.... *sigh*

Two weeks from tomorrow I will be short two more teeth. I am now accepting get well gifts, cards, as well as poetry. ESPECIALLY since Tim will be working during my recovery, and I will be left at the hands of my mother, who clearly has shown her sympathy traits above....No really. Feel free. ;-)

I am firing my dentist.

This people. Is why I hate the dentist. I had a chipped tooth. A month and a half later he got around to fixing it. One chipped tooth, somehow means three shots of novacaine, a black and blue cheek, and chipmunk effect. NOT HAPPY.

Tragically Bland.

This past week:
-I burned my finger quite badly making asparagus and tomato frittata.
-Big Brother started (yes, I am addicted).
-Tim had a very successful job interview.
-We had a very relaxing weekend, going for lots of walks, watching movies, and the Arts Festival.
-Lots of pudding has been eaten.
-Lots of planning of the Boston trip.
-I went to the dentist. And survived.
-Tim bought a white shirt to match his bright pink tie for Austin's wedding.
-I finished a crossword book that I had received for Easter.
-I heard from a friend that I have no heard from in probably a decade (man, thats weird)

I promise this weekend will have more exciting events. :)

Dude.

This is why people should not floss.

I was flossing just now, as I do EVERY night (no joke, I do it obsessively) and pop!

The corner of my tooth came off!

I don't know if it was a prior filling or just a random corner.

My dentist is closed until Monday.

Ugh.

Sidenote: Teeth!

This is me for 23 years.


This is me as of Tuesday. New president, new teeth!

It's taken me a bit of time to get used to them. As he was doing it, I was thinking, "this is silly, the gap doesn't bother any more, not like it used to, I shouldn't be messing with this" And then he was done. It's weird, I don't even think they make me look different, even though I know they do, I dont know. It's also hard because it wasn't a very good job. They LOOK right (which is the most important part) although, i kind of think they look like rabbit teeth, but they don't FEEL right. He told me it takes awhile, but when I run my finger over them, one tooth obviously is thicker than the other, they arent flush at the bottom, and the back of them has a little crease of a shelf that gets stuff stuck on it.

I guess we shall see....but I have no gap! Weird. So weird.

DPP18: Dentist Torture.

This image to me is probably one of the most anxiety ridden images I ever see. The dentist office. I start to get what I would assume is close to a panic attack about a week before I go. The day before is always the worst. I make sure to schedule the appointment first thing in the morning so I dont go insane waiting.

I didnt used to have this intense fear. Its not even really fear, its just aggrivation and a nice cocktail of other negative emotions. It really started only a few years ago. Well, maybe more than a few, probably high school. My dentist visits tend to last around two hours, which I have been told is not normal. Plus, it usually involves unpleasant amounts of pain, and always ends up me having to go back, not for cavities, but for other things like "dents" whatever that means. It's miserable.

So today was that day for me. I tried to ignore the anxiety, and did a little better than usual, but to no avail, still atrocious feelings coming my direction. But I lived through it. Like always. And I am counting it as a quasi Christmas Miracle that I was only there for an hour today! And while I will be returning in a month, its not for the usual suspects.

Since forever, I have had a gap in my front teeth. The only way of fixing it is braces, but I would pretty much have to wear a retainer for life. Not a huge fan. I go through stages of loving and hating it. But recently, it's grown on me. Madonna's got one, Lawrence Fishbourne rocks his. So imagine my surprise when my dentist asks me today if I want him to close it up. My shock must have been all over, cause he went on to explain that the bond in my front tooth (taboggoning accident at age 7, a WHOLE other story) should be replaced with some new material that didn't even exist back then, and while they do that, they can just close up the gap. Easy peasy. Takes half an hour. No pain (which I found amusing that he pointed it out specifically).

At first, I was like, OF COURSE! SIGN ME UP! But then I immediately wonder how much it will change my face. I think it will almost be surprising how much it changes everything. The wonder must have read across my face because he went on to tell me that it is reversible, in fact, David Letterman got his reversed a number of years back, because they found that without the gap, people found him less funny.

So we shall see. I plan on going through with it. And if it's just not me. Back comes the gap with all its glory and wonder!