It all started as a kid. My mom decided I needed braces. So I went through this god awful painful casting process where it felt like the teeth were being ripped out from the roots. I was picked and prodded. All the while, as my teeth started coming in, I had very stubborn baby teeth which actually would not come out so I had my adult teeth growing over them. At an early age, I had lots of teeth pulling, casting, and braces planting. Then came the day when my Dentist died. He had cancer. My mom had the braces removed.
Most dentist experiences were torturous, and by this time I had a natural aversion to them. I started getting nitrice to attend to my dental anxiety. As soon as I had my eighteenth birthday, I moved out and would go nowhere near a dentist.
This lasted for a good eleven years. I tried once going to a dentist in Austin. I had a discount coupon. The dentist was actually some sort of fresh out of college type that began interrogating me about why I wouldn't open wider for him. After all of five minutes he snapped "you need gas, just reschedule!" So I rescheduled and never came back.
I guess I never understand why I have to pay large amounts for annoying and painful picking and prodding for someone who can't even maintain a decent bedside manner most of the time. ("what do you call someone who flunked out of a med school? A dentist.")So aside from that I didn't go back for awhile.
Then came the winter of 2000. I started bleeding a whole lot in the gums. This distressed me and I thought maybe I should go to the dentist. So, with Rob's encouragement, I made an appointment with a dentist in the loop. The guy took a few X- Rays and told me I needed to go to the dentist more often lest all my teeth fall out. His assistant recomended a special type of toothpaste and mouthwash which would help my gums immensely. The dentist wanted to do deep cleaning on my gums at the cost of a mere $1,000. I, of course, said fuck that. I called one of those 1-800-Dentist lines and got a recomendation for a dentist that was supposed to be really good with anti-dentites like myself. He was on the other end of town, but there were a few major bus lines that go there, so I checked him out. He told me my problem was that I was a mouthbreather and that was damaging my gums. He set up for the same deep cleaning (i.e. scaling) and suggested some meditation techniques. Yes, he was a fruit loop but he was affordable. So the process began. He was going to do the scaling in four segments, give me nitrice to help me along.
I was initially pretty nervous, so he had me do some meditation techniques. Okay. He charged me seventy five bucks for these, but hey.
I came back a month later for the first segment. He shot novacaine into a nerve and I began screaming in pain. Fun. So he left the room for awhile, when he came back, I was adequately high on gas and fairly numb. He gave me even more novacaine. So he scraped away. I couldnt feel a damned thing. He informed me that I had a cavity but didnt suggest a time to get it filled. When I left there, I took a cab home. I was so numb I couldnt talk. I tried to drink some milk at home but the novacaine after taste made it a sort of nasty encounter. The novacaine wore off and I was in extreme pain, huddled on the bed for a good hour. Rob came home and all I could say was "Oww! Ice Cream!" He went on a run to the store. I ate some ice cream which was soothing at this point. After awhile, I was a lot better but drained and all I could eat for the rest of the day was ice cream.
It was awhile before my next appointment. His receptionists had this tendency to not really check his calendar when making appointments so they often rescheduled. The worst part was that they never confirmed appointments until 7 pm the night before so I was never quite sure if I had an appointment the next day or not. One time, I had fucked up my back so bad that I couldn't move. I had Rob bring me the phone and called up and explained what happened. This, of course, resulted in a big lecture. Apparently, my initial stage fright had convinced them that anything and everything was a result of this. The truth was, that fright had disappeared not because of the little meditation techniques but because I had bit the bullet and got the first quadrant done. After that, it was an annoyance but not a source of real anxiety. (I mean aside from the usual "something painful is going to be done to me today" variety.)
So I came in for my second appointment. Again, the dentist commented "oh it looks like you have a cavity here." and left it at that. He waited until I was very high on nitrice to ask me, "show me how you brush." and then gave me a lecture about how I dont brush hard enough and that he has gone over this with me before and I just wasn't listening to him. Of course, I did brush harder than I showed him but ya know when you have a nitrice mask over your nose, you sometimes arent at your most active and aggressive best. We went through the general appointment, he expounded on more new age techniques to cure my gums and scraped away. But atleast he didn't get novacaine in a nerve and the pain wasn't as bad as last time. I could actually eat solid food later that night. He explained they were moving to a new location. This location, it turned out, was nowhere near any el stops nor was it near any major bus routes. Fun.
The dentist cancelled three times in a row. Whenever he did, his receptionists were very pushy and demanding about when I rescheduled. Sometimes to the point of arguing with me about it if I told them a certain date or time wouldn't work for me. It became a game. I was getting annoyed that they were being that pushy when they were the one breaking the appointment. So if something important came up, I felt no guilt about rescheduling. I'd reschedule an appointment, he'd then reschedule the next two. Finally, yesterday, I made it in there.
Even
with Rob giving me a ride in the Jetta, it was a pretty hefty trek to get
there. We got there though, and they gave me the gas right away. He came
in and asked me how my gums were doing. I told him I was using a water
pic. He asked me what I was using in it. I said, well, water. (Hey that's
what they say to use in the instructions.) and he asked me what else. I
said that was it.
"You
need to use peroxide," he said. "I've told you this before but you keep
blocking it out!"
"I'm
not 'blocking it out'" I snapped, annoyed. " I just didn't remember. You
tell me stuff when I'm breathing in nitrice and I forget."
"I've
told you this a bunch of times! I'll write it down for you if I have to!"
he retorted. Okay, so now I have this dentist arguing with me about it.
So he starts numbing my mouth and keeps telling me I'm not opening wide
enough and demands to know why. Fuck if I know, it wasn't like I made a
deliberate point to trek across town and pay him all this money to intentionally
be difficult or anything. So he tells me to put my finger in my mouth and
measure how wide I'm opening it. If I take my finger out, he insists I
put it back in. Okay, this is getting annoying. I'm a paying customer,
and I'd like to be talked to as one, not like I'm his four year old daughter.
He comes in with the novacaine. He starts shooting. At first it's the usual
prick but then it becomes a very bad type of sharp pain. I tell him that
it hurts. He tells me it doesn't. Then, I get an extremely intense pain
right in my cheek. I know this should not be happening. I let out a blood
curdling scream and yell at him to stop. He finally does, but denies that
he did anything. He insinuates it's all in my head. I say no, there's pain
all through my cheek. I sit there for less than a minute when he tries
to come back at me with the novacaine. Fuck that. I tell him my cheek still
really hurts. So he says "are you numb yet?" and I say, no I'm in pain.
He and the assistant just stand there staring at me. Then, half a minute
later, "are you numb yet?" and I say, no I am not numb yet. This goes on
until I say "look I'm not numb I'm in pain." and he says he has to give
me another shot. I say no he doesn't, I still hurt from the first time.
So he sends me on my merry way. He doesn't charge me. Probably so I won't
sue him for malpractice.
Of course, five minutes after we get into the car my whole mouth is numb. The novacaine is kicking in. I suppose if he weren't a complete moron, he would have known that novacaine generally takes a few minutes to kick in. I vow to never go there again.
At this point, my gums are in much better shape than they were. A lot of this has more to do with improving my own habits (i.e. flossing, better toothpaste, etcetera) than anything else. I will no doubt have to hunt around for another dentist in the upcoming months but I am in no hurry.