The "Grind"

Captain's Log: Day 5

Today I went to the dentist. Ok, not really. But nothing extraordinary happened today, and while I have a ton of things to write about in my head, the mental flow that I had happening this morning on my walk totally died by the time I actually had a moment to write about any of those things. So, we will relive my adventures with the dentist from approximately four weeks ago.

I have had the same dentist for years. He was a one man shop, with a super nice front desk lady who doubled as the note taker when the time was right, talked cheerily about all her nieces and nephews and always asked how my kids were doing. The bonus was his office was near my office which made it perfect for a quick jaunt over to get my pearly whites polished during my lunch break. But then, you know, Covid. And now I work remotely, which I love, but it is totally not conducive to just "popping over to the dentist across town for a quick cleaning." But I remained committed to this man for over 20 years. If you could imagine your stereotypical dentist, it was this man. He was quirky. His whole office was decorated with photographs of birds that he had taken during his days off. Routine was his middle name (actually, according to his prestigious dental degree hanging in the office, it was Podmore...) He would ask you the same questions, in the same order and same tone of voice EVERY time. He hummed along to a classical music station. You knew exactly what you were going to get with him.

Meanwhile, my kids switched over from their pediatric dentist, to a dentist approximately five minutes from our house. This office not only has a dentist, but it has multiple dental hygienists and front end people. It's bright. They have pop music playing, and a little coffee/water station while you wait. When I didn't get my six month recall postcard from my dentist, I decided it was time for me to quietly switch my loyalty over to the local dentist, so I swiftly made my move and called for an appointment. Now, in this office, you don't just go in for a cleaning when you are a new patient. Instead, you have an initial visit with the dentist himself, then on a later date, you have your cleaning with the hygienist. Unless you're me. I have ALWAYS taken good care of my teeth. Do I floss daily - no. But I do floss a few times a week and I always brush at least twice a day. I chew gum made with xylitol. I felt confident that I would have a good bill of health. The first thing they do is take some high quality digital x-rays of your teeth. And those x-rays are posted in all their glory on the big screen monitor (not the little x-ray light up box thing of my previous dentist...) for all to see. Even to the untrained eye, my teeth looked to me like they had been through the wringer. You could see every nook and cranny on those babies. My worse fears were realized when the dentist confirmed that I had apparently lost an old filling on my upper left side (how I didn't realize that, I'll never know) and had not one, not two, but three small cavities along my gumline on my lower right side. I felt like such a failure. But both he and the hygienist confirmed that it was likely from all the clenching and teeth grinding that I have been doing lately, so that helped ease the sting a little. And thus began my three day in a row dental appointment extravaganza the following week.

The first day, they worked on replacing the filling(s) on the upper left side. And he told me it was deeper than he was thinking (Meghan = failure) but that he had it all sealed up and pretty. He did warn me that if it falls out again, next time it may need to be a root canal (sad face). The second day was my cleaning with the hygienist, which was easy peasy. Finally, the last day was the trifecta on the lower right side. It is quite humbling to have the front desk lady check you in on sight because of being a frequent flyer... I was actually nervous about these ones in particular because they were on the gum line, rather than on the tops of my teeth, which is wild. They were also pretty sensitive. In my defense, I will say that I HAD talked to my previous dentist and orthodontist about one tooth in particular because it was sensitive and you could see that it was slightly discolored. Neither one of them was overly concerned about said tooth and said to keep an eye on it and to try not to grind. Grinding your teeth is not for the faint of heart. The dentist did me a solid and included a nerve block in his numbing plan, which even though it meant my face was numb for like half the day, I appreciated.

I will say that my pearly whites look much better, feel much better, and I am now the proud owner of an upgraded electrical toothbrush, a water pik and mouthwash... maybe next time I'll end up with a parking spot with my name on it.

Weather: Hot and sunny.