Dentist

About a month ago, I spent two hours in a dental chair so my dentist could prepare a tooth for a crown. At that time, he put a temporary crown on the tooth while the permanent one was made. Yesterday, I went to get the permanent crown. At the first visit, they’d numbed me up, took an impression, did a lot of drilling, took another impression, and then put in the temporary crown. Yesterday’s procedure was much simpler and only took about thirty minutes. He didn’t have to numb me, which I hate, but that meant there was a modicum of pain associated with yesterday’s procedure. He had to remove the temporary crown which is not exactly pleasant. Then, he had to clean up the tooth and prepare it for the permanent crown, which was popped into place. Easy peasy, or so you’d think. In fact, the procedure was pretty easy. However, when you already have nerve damage in that area (i.e., trigeminal neuralgia), it doesn’t take much to set those nerves on edge. By the time I got home, I had a raging headache that lasted all night.

If any of my readers are dentists, forgive me for what I’m about to say, but how can someone get paid so much to torture people all day long? I’m sure there are some people who don’t think of the dentist as a torturous event, but they wouldn’t be me. Those same people probably don’t have trouble teeth like I do. I’ve always had soft teeth. It’s hereditary in my family, so no matter what I do to take care of my teeth (brushing, flossing, etc.) I still have cavities broken teeth. Thankfully, skilled dentists can fix all of that, but it’s still torture to have it done. I like my dentist a lot, and I’ve had some great dentists in my life, but just because they are nice people doesn’t mean I don’t feel like they torture me. I know they usually do whatever they can to make it as painless as possible, but I still hate going to the dentist. Whether it’s a routine cleaning and exam or a filling or a crown, I always leave in pain. Oh well, what can you do?