Dentist

Last week while we were on vacation I noticed that every so often when I was chewing my gum I'd get a strong pain in one of my molars. I was worried that I had a cavity. It wasn't constant, not consistent so I kind of blew it off until yesterday. Kent and I are going on a quick vacation next week, and I thought I'd better have the dentist check it out before we go just so I could make sure that it wouldn't cause any problems while I was there. So I called, and they said I could come in whenever I was available. Yay! I got dressed and went in. The tech took an x-ray, then Dr. Mike came in. He had me bite down on some instrument several times, and there was only one spot that bothered me a bit. I thought, "Great. This will be a quick fix since it only hurt in one spot. I'll probably just have a tiny filling and it'll be good." Wrong. I cracked the tooth. How? I'm not sure, but my dentist thinks that it's because I'm clenching my teeth at night because of my back pain. Grr... And to make things even better, I had two cavities on 2 front teeth. What?! Nothing even hurts there!

Dr. Mike is great because I'm a wimp when it comes to dental stuff. I faithfully go in for my cleanings ever 6 months, but if they find anything my heart begins to race and my fight or flee instinct kicks into overdrive. (It's only on the flee at that point...) I found that if I wear my iPod, and turn it up loud, that it almost cancels out the horrible noise of the drill. If only they could find something for the taste and smell of dental things... Anyway, going back to Dr. Mike, he always uses the numbing cream before he gives me shots. And I always take forever to numb up, and usually require extra lidocaine because I won't go numb. The only problem is that once I'm numb I stay numb for HOURS. Yesterday, my lip on the upper right side was numb, all the way up my cheekbone, and the right nostril. I went in at 11:30 for my appointment, and everything was numb until 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Here was my attempt to smile while I was waiting to pick the kids up. It looks like I am showing my teeth. This is better than it looked earlier when I could hardly talk because my lips didn't want to move. Good times, good times...