So, I had not gone to the dentist in quite some time when I stepped into the office last Tuesday. In fact, it had been so long that I couldn’t remember the last time that I had gone. Some of you may recoil in horror at that statement, but when you consider that I hadn’t had dental insurance until last year, and I knew what I was going to have to have done, you might understand. Ever since undergrad, I knew that one day would come that I’d have to have one of my teeth crowned, which if you’ve never paid for one is quite expensive. Add to that the fact that I could claim I didn’t know any good dentists, etc., and you had a litany of excuses for putting the whole thing off.

Don’t worry…I’ve made up for lost time in the dentist’s chair. They know me by name now.

Here’s the way I’ve always approached the dentist. You go, they poke and prod, and if you’re really lucky, they’ll shoot you with needles and drill for a while, and then they make you pay for the experience. My teeth are relatively stout. They had gotten a little temperature-sensitive, but for a long time that wasn’t a big deal. When it finally got to where I couldn’t eat ice cream on one side of my mouth, I finally figured that it was time to give in.

I was recommended a dentist from one of my co-workers. He and his staff have treated me well and are very good about making the suffering quotient stay low. However, thus far the tally stands at eight cavities, the aforementioned crown…

And a root canal. Which I went through yesterday.

To test for a root canal, apparently the standard procedure is to supercool a piece of something (I’m not sure exactly what it was) and hold it to the tooth in question. If you leap out of the dentist’s chair, you need a root canal.

Okay, so I didn’t leap out of the dentist’s chair. But my eyeballs almost leapt out of their sockets, so that was enough for him.

Let me just say as a result of all this having been done (save the other five fillings and the permanent crown, which are coming up in a couple of weeks), I don’t dread dentist’s needles anymore. I don’t even dread having a root canal done.

I dread what you feel afterward. Which is a lot of pain.

I took a Loritab last night at 9 to go to sleep, and it still wore off at 2:30 this morning, so I took another. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to make me loopy or anything (yes, Ricky, I don’t get “Comtrexed”), so I can drive myself to work today. I will be taking Advil today, 4 at a time.

Okay, I’m ending the above paragraph, because it’s starting to remind me of the spam I have to clean off of the blog.

Anyway, moral of the story, kids: see your dentist. Trust me, it’s better than the alternative. And if you do have a cavity, they’ll fill it with what appears to be a caulking gun, which is always good for a laugh.