What Now

Yesterday was the day I had to go back for my filling. I hate that I'm such a baby about stuff like that, but I have good reason! My childhood dentist had obviously learned his craft at a concentration camp or something, because whenever I had to go in for a filling, it felt like he was trying to remove my medulla oblongata with a syringe. Of course, maybe it was just because I was a kid and terrified of needles of all kinds, but in my head, that dentist was Joseph Mengele in disguise. At any rate, when I went in to have the thing done, I explained my aversion to needles. The drill I'm cool with, the novacaine needle throws me into a panic attack. They were surprisingly nice about the whole thing, and my dentist, Dr. Knight the younger, was very gentle. I barely felt him give me the injection at all...but then again, I had taken a tranquilizer beforehand, so maybe I did feel it and just didn't care. The actual filling part took 20 minutes or less, and seemed to be a lot simpler than it used to be. While I was lying in the chair, some man leaned into the cubicle and said hello. I didn't know who he was, and I thought he was talking to the dentist, but he was staring straight at me. I probably came off as quite rude, because I didn't say anything and it became obvious he was talking to me, so I finally said hello (as well as I could.) I realized after a second he was Dr. Knight the elder, whom I'd never met before. My main problem was that they had to clamp something in my mouth, something that looked a lot like a tool I remember my dad having in his utility room. It wasn't really huge or anything, but it was clamped in my mouth and sticking out. They had also stuffed my mouth with cotton, I had two pairs of hands in there, a sucker hose, a water hose, and a heat light wand that they were using to bond the composite to my tooth. OK, maybe that wasn't happening all at once, but how can you be polite to someone you don't know when you feel like this?

I felt bad for seeming rude, though. :( At any rate, after my social faux pas, they finished up with my mouth and things were fine. My mouth was still numb, and I had a slight case of stroke-face, and the clamp thing they had put in my mouth had pinched my lip, but my filling was filled! Now my mouth is very sore, but at least they caught the cavity before it got bad. He said he was "concerned" about the tooth right next to the one they filled, but he would keep a watch on it. Seriously? How can he do that if I only go twice a year? SIGH. I don't want any of you to think I don't take care of my teeth. Seriously, they cost my parent's a small fortune, and I'm almost OCD about taking care of them, so I have no idea how I'm getting cavities. Let's just hope that tooth he's "concerned" about doesn't need any work done on it. I don't like people poking around in my face holes!

Speaking of my dentist, he is precious. He seems to be a very young man, well...younger than me by a bit anyway, and he is very proud of his wife and kids. In fact, he was telling me and the dental assistant that his wife is due to have their newest baby any moment. In fact, he was leaving the office soon after he worked on me to go home and make sure he was with her if she needed him. He said this would be their fourth son (the oldest being 5, yikes) and since this was the last one he was so excited about rounding out their family. He said he was so excited about meeting this new baby and seeing what he looked like. It was so sweet. He also mentioned that all his boys had blue eyes and he wasn't sure where it came from. The assistant asked if his wife had blue eyes and he said "They are kind of blue, but they change depending on what she wears, and close to the pupil she has this ring of gold...but I guess her eyes are blue." AWWWW! You know a man loves his wife if he knows THAT much about her eyes. Precious.