Why Would Anyone Want to be a Dentist?

I really like my dentist.

He is a very nice man and takes good care of me and my teeth.

However, I do not like to spend time with him.

I don't know why anyone would choose to be a dentist.

I think the whole sticking your hand in everyone else's mouth is pretty gross, but in my opinion that isn't the worst part of the job.

The thing I couldn't handle is the feeling that nobody likes me.

I would get tired of going to work everyday just to hear people complain about having to visit me.

Now, I know there are some people in the world who have perfect dental hygiene and amazingly healthy teeth and all the dentist does when they visit is pat them on the back and say "Good job! See you in 6 months".

They probably enjoy their trips to the dentist.

I have those kinds of visits every now and then, but those usually involve a lot of time with the hygienist and a few seconds with my dentist.

The long visits with Dr. Thomas are the poke and drill and pull and grind procedures that I know are necessary, but definitely not enjoyable.

I am grateful that I live in a day and age where visiting the dentist is an option.

Where Novocaine makes my time in the chair fairly pain free.

Where I get to have my lousy teeth replaced with strong, gold crowns that allow me to continue biting and chewing and enjoying my food.

Don't get me wrong.

I am glad there are individuals out there who choose to be dentists and take care of my teeth, but I will admit that ever since my eldest son was in the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" in high school, the following refrain flows through my head at least once while my dentist works away in my mouth.

You'll be a dentist
(be a dentist)
You have a talent for causing things pain
(pain)
Son be a dentist
(son be a dentist)
People will pay you to be inhumane
(humane)

Your temperament's wrong for the priesthood
And teaching would suit you still less
Son be a dentist you'll be a success.

Now, my next question is - Why would anyone want to be a proctologist?

Enough Already

This has been a bad year for my youngest son, as far as his teeth go. He got 3 fillings in January, 3 fillings in February and had 2 wisdom teeth extracted in March. He got a dry socket in one of the extractions which caused a lot of pain and a lot of extra dental visits.
A couple of weeks ago he started complaining that his jaw was hurting. This went on for a couple of days and then the pain started radiating down his neck. I decided to start with the dentist to try to figure out what was causing the pain. Our dentist took x-rays and said that something didn't look right and sent him to a specialist. The oral surgeon took more x-rays and said he definitely needed a root canal. Apparently during the wisdom tooth removal the nerve in the tooth in front of one of the wisdom teeth was damaged and the pulp had died and there was now an infection around this tooth. Now root canals are never fun, but at least when I have to endure a root canal I have felt like I deserved it, due to not taking care of my teeth. It was sad for the son to have to have a root canal through no fault of his own.
He actually didn't mind the root canal at all. His surgeon had a pair of movie glasses that he got to wear during the procedure which apparently made it much more enjoyable. The receptionist said the biggest complaint they get is that the root canals don't take long enough because the patients don't get to see the entire movie. The son was smart and chose "Hitch", a movie he had already seen, so he didn't feel bad when they turned it off and told him he could leave. Having to take antibiotics every six hours for 10 days was much more painful for him than the actual surgery.
Today the son went to our regular dentist for his 6 month check up and to get fitted for his new crown. This appointment was much less enjoyable. He could have watched an entire movie - almost twice. It took FOREVER for them to build up the tooth and make a mold of it. I felt like I had become a permanent fixture in the waiting room. One more visit in 3 weeks to get his actual crown seated and then hopefully he is finished with the dentist for 2009. The various receptionists at all the dental offices keep telling us we have the best dental insurance that they have ever seen, but I'm sure he's probably just about used up his $5000 limit for the year.

Today I am thankful for

great dental insurance.
a good book to read while I waited. I still think more waiting rooms should offer puzzles.
a son, and a girlfriend, who cooked dinner.

Little Black Rain Cloud

Sometimes my youngest son has a lot in common with Eeyore. He has a habit of thinking that bad things are always going to happen to him. At the start of church basketball season he predicted that he was going to get his nose broken during the season. Sure enough, it didn't take long for that very thing to happen. I kind of think he wanted it to happen, but maybe not.
When the son and I went to the oral surgeon to discuss having his wisdom teeth pulled the doctor shared with him all the possible things that could go wrong. He told him the most likely was that he would get a dry socket, which is where the blood clot that forms in the hole where the tooth was dissolves and leaves the nerve exposed to the air. It can be very painful but is easily treated. As we left the office the son told me, "I'm going to get a dry socket." When I questioned why he said "that kind of thing always happens to me." I suggested that he have a more positive outlook and even made a bet with him, if he got a dry socket I would wash his dishes the next two times it was his turn.
Day 2 (the most common time for a dry socket) passed with no problem. Day 3 - no problem. Day 4 - no problem. Day 5 - there was more pain than usual on the left side, but even the son didn't think it was a dry socket because it didn't hurt as bad as the dentist had said it would. Day 6, Monday morning (first day back to school after spring break) the boy's pain level on a scale of 1 to 10 was 27 when he woke up. He took an Advil and said it helped a little, but not much, but of course his mean mom still made him go to school. I called the doctor and they said bring him in, so during his lunch hour we took a trip to the the oral surgeon. It was most likely a dry socket. He was treated with some nasty smelling, nasty tasting dry socket paste that took the pain away in about 30 minutes. We get to go back every 2 days to get more medicine put in for at least a week and I get to wash his dishes as well.
Same thing with the son's report card. He thinks he's going to get bad grades and sure enough that's what he gets.
I need to figure out a way to get the kid to envision positive things happening in his life. Think of all the good things that could come to pass if he'd just think them.

The Last One

Today my youngest child had his wisdom teeth pulled. He was one of the lucky ones, like his just older sister, who only had 2 wisdom teeth instead of 4. That makes removing them a little easier. At least it seems like it should. The same oral surgeon has taken out all my kids wisdom teeth (plus a few extra from the oldest daughter) and I think he is going to miss us now that we have run out of children to grow new teeth.
The son decided to not be sedated for the extractions. Some of my kids were, some weren't. I personally think waking up from surgery and not having a clue what has just happened in your life is a horrible feeling so I would prefer to be awake if possible. Actually, back in the dark ages when I had my wisdom teeth removed sedation wasn't even an option. What I remember most about the experience was that it was very loud and the worst part was that the dentist pulled the 2 teeth on the left and then I had to go back 2 weeks later to have the 2 on the right pulled. I was not at all excited about that 2nd visit and I am glad they do it all at once now.
The boy did use the laughing gas today and that seemed to make the experience more enjoyable (maybe a little too enjoyable since on the way home he was asking me if you could buy nitrous oxide on EBay).
Since this kid has a manly image to uphold, he also insisted that he didn't want to take any painkillers so I didn't bother to get his pain prescription filled ahead of time. His brother had a full bottle that hadn't been touched from his surgery 2 weeks ago that I felt we could use in an emergency. I know it's illegal o.k. I know. Well, as the shots began to wear off and feeling returned the son became more and more irritable. It didn't take long for him to decide to heck with the image. Apparently having your wisdom teeth pulled hurts a lot more than a broken nose. I offered the brother's medicine and was read the riot act. I am surprised that the police were not called immediately and that I escaped being hauled off to jail. What was I thinking??? I drove to the store, filled the prescription, paid my $8.00 and returned home as quickly as possible. The oldest daughter took Percocet when she had her wisdom teeth pulled and she was comatose for 2 days. Unfortunately Percocet didn't have the same effect on my youngest child. He wanted to be asleep, but couldn't seem to figure out how to do it. Everyone was way too loud for his liking and he made sure to let me know about it. Finally I decided to take him for a ride. That use to be how I got him to take a nap every day when he was a baby. I would drive his sister to Kindergarten and then go around the neighborhood until he fell asleep and then we would come home, I would put him in his crib, and he would be out until all his siblings arrived home from school a few hours later. It was rather nice. I was hoping for the same effect tonight. He did drift off while I drove and I found a nice hillside close to our house to park on and enjoyed the full moon, the city lights and watching the planes appear on the horizon, grow larger and then disappear as they landed. It was very peaceful. Eventually I drove home and we dozed in the driveway for a while longer. He woke up a lot less irritable and determined to never take another painkiller in his entire life. Now I have 2 almost untouched bottles of pills in my cupboard. Too bad I'm a law abiding citizen or I could sell them to the highest bidder. I just hate having addictive medicine sitting around my house and there's so much controversy surrounding proper pill disposal anymore that I don't know how to get rid of it. Don't flush it, throw it away, or bury it, that's for sure. Maybe there needs to be a medicine recycling program. Oh, but that would be illegal too. I think it would be nice if you could just return it to the pharmacy and get a refund on the unused portion or a credit toward your next purchase.

Today I am grateful for

no more wisdom teeth.
kids that don't like to take pain killers.
beautiful Spring weather.

Milkshakes and Movies

The oldest son had some oral surgery done yesterday. He had 2 spots in his mouth where there were holes in his bone and they had to cut his gum and fill the holes with cadaver bone. He has been spending a lot of time sitting on the couch with an ice pack held to his mouth.
I stocked up on lots of soft food for him to eat during his recovery and he has been using this as a good excuse to consume a few milkshakes as well.

Today he decided to host a Mighty Ducks Movie Marathon. Somehow I was sucked into the excitement of the event and spent most of my day keeping him company. It had been a long time since I had watched one of the Mighty Ducks movies and I can now say I've watched all three of them in about 5 hours. The sacrifices we mothers have to make for our children.

Royalty?

Today I went back to the dentist to get my crown put on my tooth. It's lovely. I do have to say I enjoyed this visit a lot more than the last one.

Since I now have a crown, does that make me a QUEEN??

I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

If I were a queen my telephone wouldn't be broken again and if it were it would be repaired immediately and not "sometime tomorrow".

If I were a queen I could order my teenage son's head chopped off for his nonstop complaining about having to go back to Marching Band Camp in a little while. It's his first whole day of camp and he's already driving me bonkers.

If I were a queen I wouldn't have to do laundry or pay bills or be a chauffeur or wash dishes or cook dinner or take out the trash.

Nope, I'm definitely not a QUEEN,

but I do have a very expensive crown.

Today I am thankful for

Dentists - even though I don't enjoy visiting mine, I am grateful that I live in a day where teeth with holes in them can be fixed (by making bigger holes in them and then covering them up with expensive materials) rather than just yanked out!
A Cell Phone - so I can call Qwest when my home phone doesn't work.
Being able to say "YES" - to my teenage son even though it led to me having to drive through 22 green lights to take him to Phoenix to play basketball with some old friends and then having to hang out in the hot, scary, dark church parking lot for awhile waiting for him to be finished after all the stores closed at 10:00 PM. It was still good to get to say Yes to him for a change. He thinks I enjoy telling him No all the time, but I don't.

As fun as the beach?

I just spent approximately what it cost me to go to the beach for a week at my friendly, neighborhood dentist office getting a new crown on my tooth. I'm glad I have good insurance or it would have cost me a lot more! After noting this similarity between the two experiences, I decided to think of some other ways they compare. Chalk this contemplation up to life being pretty boring sitting in a dentist chair for 2 hours.

First of all, I fit about as well in a dentist chair as I fit in a beach chair, however dentist chairs are easier to get out of and they move up and down and recline. Beach chairs can also recline, sometimes by choice and sometimes because of faulty construction.

Both experiences include a bright light shining over my head. At the beach, the light wasn't always visible and it wasn't adjustable. The dentist office light was plenty visible and can be adjusted although it seems that the preferred adjustment is "shining directly in the patients eyes". I think it is actually suppose to shine in my mouth, but my mouth and my eyes must be pretty close together. A plus at the dentist office is that I don't get sunburned if I forget to wear my sun screen, but I did get to see the dental assistant wearing some funky looking "sun" glasses while she blasted ultra violet rays into my mouth at one point.

I think I appreciate the apparel at the dentist to that at the beach. The dental dress code is all about covering up, complete with face mask and latex gloves. The dress code at the beach is usually little more than the equivalent of a face mask and a couple of gloves, strategically placed.

Getting wet is included in both activities and can be unexpected in both cases. While my feet were usually the victims at the beach, my face was definitely the victim at the dentist. The crashing sound of the waves could very easily be compared to the surging sound of water being blasted into my mouth, and they are both a lot louder than I think they should be and tend to easily escape their boundaries.

I think those are most of the comparisons that I came up with. As the actual dental work progressed it became a lot more easily compared to demolition and construction than to a day on the beach. I would most definitely recommend spending your $275 on the week long vacation and not the two hour torture if at all possible.

Life is so not fair!

So my eldest son and I had dentist appointments today. He probably wouldn't recognize a package of dental floss if you showed it to him. Not really, but you get what I mean. I, on the other hand, have religiously brushed and flossed my teeth EVERY DAY for at least the last 6 years. Guess who has a cavity? Not only a cavity but a tooth that will require a $1000 crown! Now, I will admit that I have not always flossed my teeth and there were those "lean" years where I couldn't even afford a dentist appointment let alone a crown when my teeth got very neglected, but still I say "Life is not fair"! I mean, not only did I have the cavity, but he also got the last parking spot and the blue toothbrush. Something is just wrong here. I'm just grateful we have good insurance that will pay for most of my bill. Hopefully my son will always be able to say "Look mom, no cavities".

Message to my Children - It's a lot better to take the 5 minutes required to brush and floss now than to have to live with the consequences of not doing it later on.