I know a lot of people freak out about it, but I've always been sort ambivalent about going to the dentist. I love to have my teeth cleaned and polished. It feels great. You don't realize how much crap builds up on your teeth until it's blessedly picked away by the dentist.
I've been lucky in my life. I've never had any major dental problems. Yes, I had braces, but that wasn't a huge deal. Up to this point I've never had a cavity. My wisdom teeth came in without incident. My gums are slightly receded from brushing like a maniac, but are in decent condition.
On the other hand, there's nothing I look forward to less than suffering through the dental x-ray business, which I'm sure is against Article II of the Geneva Convention. Forget waterboarding, if the CIA really wants good information out of the Gitmo prisoners, they should threaten them with a series of bite-wings.
This new dentist, who travels around the Bay Area and operates out of a Winnebago by the way, doesn't use the traditional paper x-rays. She's got a digital system, so instead of forcing little pieces of rigid paper as far into your mouth without making you gag as possible, they've got what looks like a heath bar sheathed in condom and they shove this thing in your mouth instead. It's very unpleasant and I would gladly reveal national secrets to avoid it.
I went into this appointment with a few serious concerns. I hadn't been to the dentist since October 2003 when my insurance with the Peace Corps ran out. Since then, I've had trouble with my bite which seems to be shifting alarmingly towards an underbite. And I've had some pain in my lower right wisdom tooth. It was probably just some food stuck back there, but I wanted it checked out.
It turned out that, at least according to this dentist, that there was nothing wrong with my bite. She said I had a perfect bite. She also said there was nothing wrong with my wisdom tooth. However she did find a small cavity on one of the upper left molars which we're going to fill in three weeks.
This is not what I wanted to hear at all. I'm bummed about the cavity, but I can't do much about that. It's minor and will take 10 minutes to fix. What really concerns me is that the dentist denied what I am certain is a serious problem with my bite. I don't really know how to take this. I'm sure I'm right. I mean, it's my fucking mouth I have to live with everyday. So what do I do? Go see another dentist. I honestly don't know.
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