Hey, so do you guys want to hear about my dentist appointment yesterday? No? Cool, I’ll tell you!
Have you ever spent four hours at the dentist to walk out with: An aching set of gums
- A newly shaved (not numbed) tooth
- Another appointment card
- Another temporary crown that is not the temporary crown you came into the office with and yet also not the permanent crown you had been fitted with for the past four hours
- No more will to live
That was my day yesterday.
A little backstory, I have horrible white coat syndrome and I avoid any and all doctors until my only other option besides avoidance is death. Well, when I was 17 I had to have an emergency root canal. I was very far from numb, the dentist was very aggressive, the nurse made fun of me, after all that…
I didn’t go to the dentist for 7 years.
Fast forward to the top of 2018: I had just entered my mid-twenties and thus quarter-life-crisis-mode and decided that I needed to get my teeth cleaned. I went in and was told that I had 14 cavities and also had to get my crown replaced.
Which brings me to yesterday.
The past two years I’ve been living at the dentist and I’ve gotten all of my cavities fixed now (a lot of tears from a grown woman, but I did it) and the day came to get my new permanent crown put on.
Whew, that was a lot of backstory…
Well I got to the dentist office yesterday, sat in the chair, and the lady comes in and tries to numb me.
No no no, ma’am. This tooth is deader than my soul and you will not be sticking any needles into my mouth this day, kthnxbye.
Then I waited in the chair for about half an hour I guess while my non-numbed tooth got non-numb. Finally the nurse came in a swiftly yanked my temporary crown off and started with the gum poking…
Oh, cool, that’s what that feels like when I’m not numb? Love that.
… and the squeezing of “material” in between my tooth-nub and gums.
Oof.
It’s fine, I’m fine, I’m only slotted for an hour and a half and it’s already been an hour so this is almost over.
Low and behold she says “Okay, we’re going to make sure this crown fits good, take an x-ray or two, and then you’ll be good to go!”
Wonderful, thanks!
Crown on, gum poking, crown off
Crown on, gum poking, cotton biting, crown off
Crown on, x-ray, crown off
Cold water tooth spraying, oh my god my other teeth aren’t dead and that’s like biting straight into an ice cream cone, spit sucker, crown on, x-ray, crown off
Crown on, gum poking, polisher, crown off
We did this song and dance for another hour. They had given me six x-rays at that point and then she said, “Alright, I think that’s good. Let me get the Doctor and we’ll get it cemented on.” “Um, alrighty then. Thank you.”
And then I waited for half an hour.
The dentist comes in:
Crown on, gum poking, crown off
Crown on, edge shaving, crown off
“Hmm, okay let’s take a couple more x-rays” “Um, okay then, that’s fine.”
And then I waited for half an hour.
So apparently “the lab” isn’t that great because my crown did not fit down onto my tooth as smoothly as was necessary to avoid me coming back to the dentist more than twice a year. My dentist said that she would rather send it back and get it corrected. And because I trust my dentist with my life (she’s might be the best thing that ever happened to me) and I also hate to see her, I agreed. To reiterate: “I have horrible white coat syndrome and I avoid any and all doctors until my only other option besides avoidance is death.”
But then she said she was going to drill down some edges of my teeth to make sure the new new crown fits better.
Come again?
Yes, drill down some of my non-numbed teeth.
Should I have put a trigger warning on this blog? Is that what the kids do these days? Don’t worry, it didn’t hurt at all. I mean, my two teeth that she trimmed that don’t have root canals are ridiculously sensitive now, but it will subside.
And then I waited for half an hour.
That’s all that happened; they made me a new temporary and cemented that on and took another x-ray, yada yada. But what got to me was that I spent four hours at arguably my least favorite place getting effectively nothing accomplished.
I’m being dramatic. It wasn’t that bad. Don’t get me wrong, my gums and soul are very sore, but I’m grateful to have a dentist that is thorough enough and invested enough in my well-being that she’s willing to spend an extra three hours with me and not charge me for it. I’m pretty sure would give her any of my dispensable organs.
I just wanted to vent, y’all. If a girl can’t vent to strangers on her own website under the guise of entertainment, then what’s the point of being an adult?
This is a full-on pajama onesie. This is truly adulting.
Dabbling Adult 