Oh boy - the dentist!

So today was my dental appointment to get my teeth cleaned. Like most people I do not look forward to dental visits but I suppose it is a necessary evil. Rather than moaning about it I should be grateful that I have medical insurance that covers dental, it wasn’t all that long ago that I didn’t. I remember during my student years when I went without seeing a dentist for at least 2 years – and the resulting problems from doing so (gingivitis).

Now I build up tartar at a rate faster than most people – I definitely need to have my teeth cleaned at least every six month or else tartar builds up under the gumline and irritates it. This was the main reason why I had the gingivitis problem. One dentist even recommended that I get my teeth cleaned every five months instead of six to keep on top of the problem.

Of course it’s been eight months since I had my teeth cleaned. Why I do this to myself I’ll never know.

So I went to the dentist’s office for my cleaning and warned her “I’m going to bleed a lot, but don’t worry”. I’ve been through this often enough now to know that tartar build up really causes my gums to bleed during cleaning. I didn’t warn the last hygienist who cleaned my teeth and she was really alarmed at the bleeding. I was that close to telling her “well maybe if you wouldn’t eviscerate my gums with that scraper they’ll stop bleeding!” Thankfully I didn’t but I was not a happy camper at the time. I figured I give this dentist a warning up front about the bleeding so she wouldn’t say anything. Commenting on it while I’ve had my teeth & gums chiseled with sharp hooks for a half-hour is not the time to bring up that I’m bleeding.

What proceeded next was the fastest cleaning I’ve had in my life! I got in the chair and she immediately went to work. Cleaning & polishing (no fluoride at the end though - odd) took all of 15 minutes – tops. I don’t know whether to be elated because it was so short and relatively painless – relatively, mind you – or that it was so fast I have a small suspicion that it wasn’t a great job. There was lots of bleeding, as promised by yours truly, and she immediately booked me for an appointment in three months for a re-clean before any tartar significantly builds up – maybe to prevent the gums getting irritated. Then that was it – no xrays, no “let’s take a look and see if there’s anything else”, no trying to plus-sell me on other dental work (something that annoyed me about the last place that I went to).

All-in-all I was happy with the experience, still have a nagging doubt about the quality of the cleaning though. At least I have my next appointment booked already so I won’t procrastinate and let this get out of hand like last time.

And, thankfully, it’s insured.



I'd also like to take this time to wish my sister Karen a Happy Birthday!!! Love ya, hope you have a great day. Have piece of cake for me (since I can't have one due to the diet)