Discomfort at the Dentist
Submitted by
clubescape on Thu, 06/14/2007 at 12:40pm.
Yesterday, I overslept by 15 minutes. So instead of brushing my teeth, I swished some Listerine as I threw on my clothes and frantically rushed out of the house. I got to work and decided not to brush my teeth because my toothbrush was all mangled and crusty looking. I left work early to go to the dentist. Usually people brush their teeth right before their appt as a last ditch effort to show you’re clean. On the other hand, I didn’t brush my teeth all day so I was all paranoid as he was digging in my mouth. He just said I have nice teeth and no cavities. Sweet.
When I was a kid, I had really bad teeth. In fact, I had all silver caps when I was about 4. I was one of those kids who never smiled with teeth and was always self conscious of it. Dental visits never really scared me. They weren’t enjoyable, but they weren’t traumatic…except one time. I must’ve been around 8 or 9 years old and was getting a cavity filled. The doc put on laughing gas which smelled of bananas. I felt nauseous and puked everywhere. I felt bad because it was gross and smelled like acidic pizza. He finished my filling nonetheless. I hate the smell of bananas and don’t like bananas in my shake.
Yesterday’s visit was the most uncomfortable dental cleaning I’ve ever had. Usually one person scrubs your teeth while the assistant sucks out the water and spit. Instead, the dentist hung the sucker thing on the side of my mouth. I seriously felt like I was going to drown in my spit. It was incredibly annoying, and I kept swallowing the whole time. To keep my mind off of it, I started counting the tiles on the ceiling. Swallow. Then I started counting patterns on the wall. Swallow. Being in the patient seat is pretty weird if you think about it. There’s a bright light glaring into your face and mouth as someone put his fingers and metal probes in it. Scraping, tapping, polishing teeth. Water drops sometimes fly out of your mouth and lands on your face. Do you wipe it, wait for the doc to wipe it, or ignore it? What do you do with your tongue? Move it to the side that’s not being worked on? Move it to the bottom or roof of your mouth? Do you stare at the ceiling, the light, the doc, or just close your eyes? I’m weird, and these were the thoughts that ran through my head.
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