I just got back from the dentist. Nearly two hours in the chair: in itself, that’s tiring. But the part that is bugging me at the moment is that the freezing is still fully active. My mouth feels like its stuffed with cotton or something. And of course you have to answer a bunch of questions while you are standing at the dentist. The best part was when my credit card was “declined”: Citibank likes to refuse approval on “unusual” charges periodically. Trying to talk through that situation is great fun when half your mouth is frozen.
I suspect I’ll be in some pain once the freezing wears off- at the moment, I actually am sort of looking forward to that. I doubt I’ll feel the same way in a few hours. I’m a big baby when it comes to pain.
I remember reading about wonderful new dental technologies that were coming “any day now” to completely eliminate decay. I’d be happy if they worked out a totally pain/discomfort free way to do their work. Today’s treatment was amongst the best I’ve had in terms of “comfort”, but I still had a death grip on the chair arm every time that evil drill went into my mouth. Then there are the challenges involved with … spit. What do you do with the saliva in your mouth while the dentist is drilling away? Answer: suffer with it, or drool, or struggle to swallow in between drilling sessions.
I go back for a permanent crown in a couple of weeks, then some more work (a full cleaning) a week or two after that. It’s my own fault for not keeping up with the dental appointments the past few years. There are no magical technologies to fix my teeth, unfortunately.