Dental Woes

I don't think anyone hates going to the dentist as much as me. Why is it that the 6 months in between cleanings flies by... every single time. Just like yesterday when I got the call that my appointment was scheduled for today, my reaction was the same as it always is, "Ugh Crud... again already!?"

Not that I have anything against dentists in particular. I have a fabulous father-in-law who is in fact a dentist.. but not MY dentist, irritating MY gums. It's not that I don't like the end result. Who doesn't love clean teeth? It's just that awful noise, that grating sound, that makes you want to pull every LAST hair our of your head. And seriously.. do you really need to use that hook like contraption to scrape over the same tooth over and over again?

I've grown to hate dental visits the older I get. I attribute this to a couple of reasons.

1. There is no longer the appeal of the bubble gum flavored paste when they polish your teeth. Just because I'm 23, does not mean I prefer mint to bubble gum!

2. To put it lightly, I have had dental "issues" in my lifetime. It all started back in the 8th grade when Tyler McGee "accidentally" knocked Heather and me over on a youth group outing, while Heather was on my back. We came tumbling down, and I first hit my mouth straight on, and then Heather fell on top of me, and I got a second blow to the forehead. End Result: Every last brace on my teeth came off, and I had to have all of them put back on. On top of that, I ended up with a dead tooth. yup.. dead. Which ended up in a root canal, that was even better than a teeth cleaning (sarcasm). If you ever happen to notice that one of my front teeth is slightly darker than the others... now you know why. No one actually notices this, except my mother.

Fast forward 7 years. I'm on my way to Bham to visit Matthew for my spring break (side note: we had only been dating a couple of months). In the car, I all of a sudden start feeling this gnawing tooth pain in yup... you guessed it. The same tooth. WHAT? It's dead! How can I be feeling any pain? As soon as I got to Bham, the pain was unbearable. So terrible, that I couldn't even eat... at this point I KNOW it's a problem. So, Matthew calls his father (my incredibly talented dentist of a father-in-law.) And he informs me that I have a tooth abscess. So after a sleepless night, we called every dentist in Birmingham the next day, to no avail. I couldn't see anyone until the next day... 2 days of unbearable pain. And NO sleep. I'm sure I was a complete joy to be around. To make a long story short, it was fixed eventually. Thankfully, my mom who has also had a tooth abscess informed me that it hurt worse than having all 3 of her children. At least I have something to look forward to?

So, as you can see. I HATE the dentist. Countdown: 6 more months.