Dentist

My dentist retired recently.  I have had the same dentist, working out of the same office, my whole life.  I was trying to figure out how old my dentist must be, if I started seeing him when I was 5 years old, and I’m 36 now…How old are you when you graduate dental school?   He must have had patients before me, I can’t have been his first one…  It’s crazy when you think about how long my dentist has been a dentist.  I remember playing with the toys in the waiting room, talking though the little window, waiting for my name to get called. 

I chose a new dentist closer to home, the office is so nice and modern!  There was a window in the exam room!  I was asked what would I like to watch?  The TV was hung from the ceiling, I watched Friends as the dental hygienist gave me my cleaning.  My old dentist only had an airplane mobile.  Sometimes the radio. 

She tool digital x-rays and pulled them up on her computer in the exam room and showed them to me.  Very cool!  Then, she gave me the bad news.  I had a cavity.  My very first cavity.  I had never had any major teeth issues, no braces, nothing like that.  I thought it would go on forever, me not having a cavity, but alas, I booked an appointment to get it filled.  They had had a cancelation, so I got an appointment 2 days later to get the cavity filled.  This was great!  I didn’t have time to think about it, or have people tell me horror stories for months and months and scare me. 

My dentist was a riot!  She was very sorry that it was her that had to give me my first filling, but the whole process was so painless, I wasn’t upset at all.  Again, I got to pick a movie, but the dentist made jokes the whole time, so I didn’t really watch it.  I just laughed the whole time, as much as you can when people have their hands in your mouth.  Everything was numbed up, then she drilled it and filled it, and I was done!  She explained each part as if I was a kid, so that was funny.  She put on the sleepy juice, then the rain coat, the she collected the sugar bugs.  All very painless.  Since I was such a good patient, I got to pick something from the toy chest. 

I will definitely try to be more diligent with flossing so I don’t get more cavities, but all in all, the experience was great!  Not bad for my first cavity.