Lady Jan's Dental visit

I went to the dentist the other day for a cleaning and a check-up, and I was really nervous about it too.

The last visit I had with the hygientist (Carrie) left me a little shaken; I had a crack in one of my upper molars, and a small cavity in my lower right wisdom tooth. Which means I might have to have a cap for the cracked tooth because of the large filling that is already there, and they don't fill cavities in wisdom teeth anymore--they pull them!

EEK!

That wasn't good news at all!

Of course it was all up to the Dentist when he saw me the next time, and that would be at the next six month visit.

So I was bad.

I didn't go.

They called to confirm my appointment and as luck would have it I had the flu, that first time I really did. The next time a cold, and then the flu again, when I got another call later then I said I was sick yet again--h-mm not sure with what this time.

Too bad such bad timing.

Then Carrie (the hygientist) caught me at home a month ago with not even an allergy attack to blame, and I said "okay I'll go."

It had been a year from the last visit.

I went with my daughter in tow, and spent better than half an hour in the chair while the TV murmured in the back ground. I like how they have TV's in there now--what a good idea--such a good distraction! I hardly felt or heard the scrape scrape of the dental tool.

She chatted the whole time, and made comments on the TV show that was on, as she x-rayed and then scraped the plaque off my teeth. I'm not sure why the dental professionals feel compelled to fill the space with their small talk, not that I'm complaining--I'm glad. I can stop thinking about what they are doing in my mouth for the time I'm there, and just think about what they are telling me instead.

But it's kind of silly too, as I now know more about my hygientist and my dentist then about any other of my or my daughter's health care providers. Think of it this way; while getting your annual pap smear or physical your doctor started telling you about his or her golf game, or vacation.

Wouldn't that seem weird?

But Carrie is really nice. And she told me that she had a rough year since I saw her last; and that she lost her mom last year, and had the hard task of emptying her mom's house and selling it. And at the same time that her mom's house sold, her and her husband moved into a new house they had just bought. Then just yesterday they had to put they beloved old Dalmatian to sleep. He was really old sixteen or seventeen (I forgot, but younger than my dog though), and she keeps a photo of him in her stall (cubicle? What ever those rooms are called) just like what you'd do with your child(she has no children). She gets a little embarrassed when she is called the Dalmatian lady. Any way what had happened to prompt this was that her husband had to pick up the poor old pooch to take him out side, then held him up just so he could pee. That's when they made that really hard decision to put him to sleep.

I wanted to say something sympathetic, but all I could do was say "uh, huh" in the right places. If I said anything it would have sounded like "gug gug gug, ga ga, gug ga ga."

The cleaning went so well that Carrie said "(I) didn't need to see her for a whole year."
I said "are your serious?"

"Yes, you really know what your doing. (Teeth wise.) And you did so well not seeing me for a whole year, that we'll try that again for you for next time."

Huh?

Then I had to wait for the Dentist to give his verdict. This part made me really nervous because of last years exam. And I thought oh here it goes, he'll want to pull that wisdom tooth and while he's at it "let's pull all of them!"(I still have all four.) And he'll have to cap that upper tooth too. Or so my imagination told me over and over again.

Then my good looking dentist walked in, and he's real nice too. And he said "let's have a look shall we?"

Gulp, "Okay."

While he picked at some plaque the hygienist missed around my gum line, he told me about his vacation. (Here we go again.)He went to Canada--his wife is from there, and they went to see her relatives. His wife also got ill on the trip, and he got bored while she was taking a nap, so he looked up the local dentist and went to see her. But she was busy so he soon returned to their hotel room.

???

My dentist gets away from it all--in another country no less, and he is finally got away from all the mouths, teeth, and drool--and he gets bored and has to look up and a fellow dentsist?

How weird is that?

He concludes my exam and tells me my mouth is in fine shape, and he also gave me a cancer check up too--that I passed with flying colors.

Cancer?

He said "I was checking you for mouth cancer, when I lifted your tongue tolding the tip with some gauze, and then flattened your tongue with the mirror, so I look around better. And I also felt around your jaws checking the salvorary glands for cancer too."

Mouth cancer?

It seems there is more mouth cancer than breast cancer(funny he mentions that one first), or skin cancer, or colon cancer--more than any other cancer.

And I'm fine.

Phew!

And my teeth are too!

Yay!

Nothing is gonna get pulled or drilled or capped!

At least not this year!