Tag Archives: teeth

Cavities! zOMG I have them! (Two! In the same goddamned tooth!)

Health, ,

In which I get some bad news u guise! I have to get holes drilled in one of my teeth!!!!1!

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] have never had a cavity IN MY LIFE*. 

I’m that one person who can say, “I have never had a filling. Ever!” (I have bad skin and have to wear glasses, not to mention the horrible tartar, so I figured I deserved it.) UNTIL NOW.

Now I have not just a cavity, but two! In the same tooth! And an appointment to get a filling! In April! No shit!

When I went for my exam yesterday, the dentist, whom I’d not previously met, asked me what I do. “I’m a rock star,” I said. “I play blues festivals all summer.”

He quizzed me a little more and of course I revealed that one doesn’t live on gig money, that I’m a sysadmin by day, blah blah blah. He apparently made the leap that I must understand electronics.

My cavities, such as they are, are very small and going weird directions and failed to show up on the films, so the good doctor took another couple because I said I wanted to see them, my very own cavities, but still no joy. So he brought out an oral wand camera thing, stuck it in my mouth, and took a picture.

My cavities, such as they are, are two little brown spots on my upper left rear tooth — not very dramatic at all, but I guess one gets them drilled and filled to stop them getting worse. Whatever. (I thought it’d be this Terrifying Black Nastiness that Clearly Needs Intervention to keep it engulfing my entire brain pan, and not a boring little brown spot. I mean, sheesh.) Continue reading Cavities! zOMG I have them! (Two! In the same goddamned tooth!) →

Another Trip to the Dennis

Health,

In which my face is numb.

I’m revising my opinion of my new dentist’s office. They called me today and offered me a spot they had due to cancellation, and I went in at ten. The hygienist rocked; she cleaned half my mouth within an inch of its life.

That ultrasonic tool works really well, but I dislike it when it squeals in my eardrums and sinuses. It’s so strange, lying there in a chair with a total stranger touching my face – intimate because there are fingers on my jaw or lips, medical because of the latex gloves and the smell of disinfectant – while a science fiction sonata is played in strange, metallic overtones on the bones around my brain.

I got three shots of local. My lips are still numb, and my gums are beginning to ache. Doing call center work with half your mouth asleep is certainly a fun spin on an otherwise utterly unremarkable Wednesday.

The hygienist told me I was “excellent to work on.” And I totally am: I lie there with my mouth open and my eyes closed, and drift. I laughed a few times because my nerves weren’t telling me what they were supposed to: my tongue worked, but my lips felt swollen and weird. The hygienist worked for an hour and a half, scraping and ultrasonic-ing and digging and flossing. When she was done, she gave me a bag with dental goodies in it and told me to gargle with warm salt water.

My next appointment isn’t until February 2nd, but they said they’d call me if they get another cancellation. Yea verily, clean teeth shall be mine!

I can’t wait for the feeling to return to my lips, though.

Aunts and Uncles and Cousins, Oh My!

Events, , ,

In which Xmas day was super plus fun!

Xmas 2007Christmas Day totally rocked.

It’s been years since I’ve celebrated this holiday with my blood family, and it was really great to be at Gramma’s house with a whole passel of aunts and uncles and cousins and their spouses and parents. We ate dinner mid-afternoon, then Dave went to get his kids and we opened gifts around three in the afternoon.

Yes, I said three. Three! In the afternoon! It took forever to get to the present-opening; I thought I was gonna die. (I got cute red jammies from Gramma, two gift certificates, earrings, coffee, mugs, candy, and lots of other fun stuff. It was awesome.)

My band wanted to record a demo that afternoon, but I didn’t go. While their enthusiasm is awesome, as far as I know we don’t have even three songs worked out yet. The idea is that we need to slap together a demo and start booking gigs so that we will have a reason to practice… we’re all people who write papers the night before they’re due, I guess.

In completely unrelated news, I have a dental appointment on January 2nd. Yay! I need to get my teeth cleaned so bad it’s disgusting, but this particular office didn’t let me make an appointment for a cleaning – I have to got through their evaluation and intake crap first, and get x-rays. They’d better get me back in the next fucking day, though, because I think my teeth are so plaque-ridden that I’m running a low-level infection in my gums. Which is totally gross, and which makes my mouth taste like tin foil, and which makes my tongue all white and gross when I wake up every morning. I’ll probably need another planing and scaling, which is expensive and takes four visits, but which keeps one’s gums from receding and leaves one’s mouth pristine.

First the uterus. Then the teeth. Next, the eyes. Eventually I’ll be practically normal!