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greenmanSo, Friday morning, I chipped a tooth. Not badly, just the enamel. No exposed anything.
But things were crazy on Friday, and Saturday, and I knew that I wasn't going to have a chance to get to a dentist to get it taken care of until Monday. So I came in this morning, and very specifically sat down to find a dentist in the downtown area.
For those of you who don't know, I've got a fairly severe phobia of dentists. When I was 12 or thereabouts (I was in 5th grade) I fell down a flight of stairs and chipped my front two top teeth. Exposed nerves in both tetth. Root canals were in order. Unfortunately, due to my age they couldn't perform the root canal entirely, because the nerves hadn't finished growing. So they performed 3/4s of a root canal on each tooth (which was pretty traumatic for me, at the age of 12), and then put temporary caps on, so that they could wait 6 months to complete the root canal. And then they put another set of caps on. And another. And another. And another. Temporary caps are just that. But having what amounts to a tooth fall out while you're brushing your teeth, or eating, or just to wake up and find a tooth missing (and never found... I needed the extra roughage in my diet, right?) is even more traumatic, at least for me.
As a result, I've avoided dentists for a number of years since then. In fact, once I was 18 or so, I pretty much didn't go at all. I thiink that I had an appointment when I was 21 for something minor, but nothing since until about a year and a half ago.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alymid finally convinced me to go, and after the initial consult, the dentist gave me valium to take before my next appointment. I went in, and they gave me 1/2 a deep cleaning (left side of my jaw) and told me to come back for the other half and to get a small cavity filled. I made the appointment... And then work got busy, and there were always excuses not to go, and I never went back.
This morning, I went to a new dentist. I found him by looking through the Blue Cross/Blue Shield website, and then doing searches for reviews on the dentists in the area. It took a bit, but I finally found one close by my office with a good repuation and noted as being good with nervous people. So I went to Dr. Patel.
And he was great. I mean, it was a dentist's appointment. They drilled my teech, they put nasty tasting stuff in my mouth, but other than that, it wasn't bad at all. The excessive smell of disinfectent wasn't there, the music playing in the background was at least decent, and he was great to deal with. Told me exactly what he was going to be doing before he did it, including while he was drilling and filling my cavity and bonding the chip in my tooth. Turns out that I will have to pay for the bonding, because Blue Cross considers it physical damage and won't cover it. And the reason that my tooth chipped out of the blue is that I apparently grind my teeth in my sleep, and I've worn down the enamel on most of my teeth. So now I need a night guard that I will have to wear when I sleep from now on, to keep me from doing any more damage to myself.
So overall, I found a dentist that I actually like, and will recommend. And that means that maybe I will go to him more often.
And amusingly enough, his office is right next door to the office of the dentist that I went to way back when, before and during my childhood tooth trauma. Turns out that he's retiring when his office lease ends. So I don't have to feel guilty about not going back to him.
But things were crazy on Friday, and Saturday, and I knew that I wasn't going to have a chance to get to a dentist to get it taken care of until Monday. So I came in this morning, and very specifically sat down to find a dentist in the downtown area.
For those of you who don't know, I've got a fairly severe phobia of dentists. When I was 12 or thereabouts (I was in 5th grade) I fell down a flight of stairs and chipped my front two top teeth. Exposed nerves in both tetth. Root canals were in order. Unfortunately, due to my age they couldn't perform the root canal entirely, because the nerves hadn't finished growing. So they performed 3/4s of a root canal on each tooth (which was pretty traumatic for me, at the age of 12), and then put temporary caps on, so that they could wait 6 months to complete the root canal. And then they put another set of caps on. And another. And another. And another. Temporary caps are just that. But having what amounts to a tooth fall out while you're brushing your teeth, or eating, or just to wake up and find a tooth missing (and never found... I needed the extra roughage in my diet, right?) is even more traumatic, at least for me.
As a result, I've avoided dentists for a number of years since then. In fact, once I was 18 or so, I pretty much didn't go at all. I thiink that I had an appointment when I was 21 for something minor, but nothing since until about a year and a half ago.
alymid finally convinced me to go, and after the initial consult, the dentist gave me valium to take before my next appointment. I went in, and they gave me 1/2 a deep cleaning (left side of my jaw) and told me to come back for the other half and to get a small cavity filled. I made the appointment... And then work got busy, and there were always excuses not to go, and I never went back.This morning, I went to a new dentist. I found him by looking through the Blue Cross/Blue Shield website, and then doing searches for reviews on the dentists in the area. It took a bit, but I finally found one close by my office with a good repuation and noted as being good with nervous people. So I went to Dr. Patel.
And he was great. I mean, it was a dentist's appointment. They drilled my teech, they put nasty tasting stuff in my mouth, but other than that, it wasn't bad at all. The excessive smell of disinfectent wasn't there, the music playing in the background was at least decent, and he was great to deal with. Told me exactly what he was going to be doing before he did it, including while he was drilling and filling my cavity and bonding the chip in my tooth. Turns out that I will have to pay for the bonding, because Blue Cross considers it physical damage and won't cover it. And the reason that my tooth chipped out of the blue is that I apparently grind my teeth in my sleep, and I've worn down the enamel on most of my teeth. So now I need a night guard that I will have to wear when I sleep from now on, to keep me from doing any more damage to myself.
So overall, I found a dentist that I actually like, and will recommend. And that means that maybe I will go to him more often.
And amusingly enough, his office is right next door to the office of the dentist that I went to way back when, before and during my childhood tooth trauma. Turns out that he's retiring when his office lease ends. So I don't have to feel guilty about not going back to him.
