Less dental stress

Given how awful it was the last time I went to the dentist two and a half years ago, perhaps it's not surprising I've put things off as long as I have. But I've been trying to change my evil ways, which includes brushing and flossing daily, using prescription-strength fluoride rinse and *sigh* getting my mouth patched up.

The prospect of this last has had me pretty darn nervous the last week or so - I was so stressed that I haven't been sleeping well, and woke up in the middle of one night with a tension headache. There's the financial aspect, for one - fortunately, I am possessed of some pretty good dental benefits, but there's always the question of whether what a particular dentist charges is within the "allowable rates" (hint: the "allowable rates" are BS numbers that these folks seem to pull out of a hat). There's also the whole "competent dentist" question, which was a bit more of a problem when I was up in Barrow and didn't have much in the way of choice. Fortunately, I seem to be covered on that score - I've been seeing Dr. Laskey, a very awesome dentist whom BD's lovely wife Connie referred me to. He has a very laid-back attitude (apparently he's a farm kid from some tiny town in Iowa or someplace), a very nice bedside manner, and (as Connie put it) "is very good with Novocaine and patience." Which is a bit of a relief, since God knows if there's anyone who needs a patient dentist it's me. His hygenist didn't even give me a half-hour lecture on the effects of not flossing/brushing regularly - she seemed to respect my intelligence enough to understand I could draw the connection myself when she told me that I had some pretty severe gingivitis and a chronically abscessed molar. So I'm trying to do my part and work on oral hygiene habits. I'm actually proud to say that I haven't missed a single day in the couple of weeks since my first appointment.

The last aspect that was stressing me out, however, was the actual dental work itself - I've had some pretty bad experiences with it in the past. Yesterday I had an appointment to get a temporary filling for my chipped premolar (the idea being that if all goes well, my tooth will have a chance to rebuild and in a year or two I can get a more permanent filling). I was pretty darn nervous about it all the day before and all that morning. (Since Brian and I had the day off work, he took me out to breakfast before my appointment that morning, which helped immensely - thanks, m'love.) I really didn't have any idea what the procedure was going to entail, though I figured that rebuilding a chipped tooth was going to be something semi-major, involving several Novocaine shots and various medieval-looking implements of heinous design. So the anticipation really sucked.

However, once I got there, it actually wasn't so bad. It didn't even live up to a tenth of my anticipation. Roughly speaking, I'd say it was about five minutes for two shots, five minutes to let them take effect (during which Dr. Laskey tilted the chair towards the window so I could look out over the Gastineau Channel, as well as pointed out an eagle who had taken up roost nearby), ten minutes of drilling, five minutes of scraping with only vaguely medievalesque instruments, ten minutes of applying some really nasty stuff that smelled like acetone, and ten minutes of cleanup/postprocedure advice. I was out of there in forty-five minutes with no sore jaw and a minimally numb face that wore off an hour afterward. I have to say I'm really impressed with the quality of the work, too - it looks and feels almost exactly like it did when I had a whole tooth there.

I've got another appointment next week to do pretty much the same thing on the other side of the mouth. It might be a little trickier since this one has an equally large hole but hasn't broken off yet (yay for more drilling), but if it's anywhere near as painless as this one I think I'll be okay with it. I'm still cringing a bit in anticipation of the financial aspects (I haven't gotten any paperwork back from the insurance company yet), but thanks to PFDs I've got a bit of cash socked away, so hopefully I'll be able to cover whatever they won't. And I'll probably get my two trashed molars extracted - my mouth's always been overcrowded anyway, and it's a heckuva lot cheaper (and less painful!) than a root canal. So that's on the plan for probably early next year (so I don't overstep the "maximum benefits" for the year...yay for more insurance hoops to jump through!)

Mostly, though, I've just been feeling better about my ability to cope with all this in general. It was something of a blow finding out how bad my mouth was, but everything I've read says that if I can keep up with the flossing and such there's no reason it'll get any worse. And I guess ten minutes a night isn't such a bad thing if it saves me thousands of dollars (not to mention hours of time, and pain) in dental work later on...

Less dental stress

Given how awful it was the last time I went to the dentist two and a half years ago, perhaps it's not surprising I've put things off as long as I have. But I've been trying to change my evil ways, which includes brushing and flossing daily, using prescription-strength fluoride rinse and *sigh* getting my mouth patched up.

The prospect of this last has had me pretty darn nervous the last week or so - I was so stressed that I haven't been sleeping well, and woke up in the middle of one night with a tension headache. There's the financial aspect, for one - fortunately, I am possessed of some pretty good dental benefits, but there's always the question of whether what a particular dentist charges is within the "allowable rates" (hint: the "allowable rates" are BS numbers that these folks seem to pull out of a hat). There's also the whole "competent dentist" question, which was a bit more of a problem when I was up in Barrow and didn't have much in the way of choice. Fortunately, I seem to be covered on that score - I've been seeing Dr. Laskey, a very awesome dentist whom BD's lovely wife Connie referred me to. He has a very laid-back attitude (apparently he's a farm kid from some tiny town in Iowa or someplace), a very nice bedside manner, and (as Connie put it) "is very good with Novocaine and patience." Which is a bit of a relief, since God knows if there's anyone who needs a patient dentist it's me. His hygenist didn't even give me a half-hour lecture on the effects of not flossing/brushing regularly - she seemed to respect my intelligence enough to understand I could draw the connection myself when she told me that I had some pretty severe gingivitis and a chronically abscessed molar. So I'm trying to do my part and work on oral hygiene habits. I'm actually proud to say that I haven't missed a single day in the couple of weeks since my first appointment.

The last aspect that was stressing me out, however, was the actual dental work itself - I've had some pretty bad experiences with it in the past. Yesterday I had an appointment to get a temporary filling for my chipped premolar (the idea being that if all goes well, my tooth will have a chance to rebuild and in a year or two I can get a more permanent filling). I was pretty darn nervous about it all the day before and all that morning. (Since Brian and I had the day off work, he took me out to breakfast before my appointment that morning, which helped immensely - thanks, m'love.) I really didn't have any idea what the procedure was going to entail, though I figured that rebuilding a chipped tooth was going to be something semi-major, involving several Novocaine shots and various medieval-looking implements of heinous design. So the anticipation really sucked.

However, once I got there, it actually wasn't so bad. It didn't even live up to a tenth of my anticipation. Roughly speaking, I'd say it was about five minutes for two shots, five minutes to let them take effect (during which Dr. Laskey tilted the chair towards the window so I could look out over the Gastineau Channel, as well as pointed out an eagle who had taken up roost nearby), ten minutes of drilling, five minutes of scraping with only vaguely medievalesque instruments, ten minutes of applying some really nasty stuff that smelled like acetone, and ten minutes of cleanup/postprocedure advice. I was out of there in forty-five minutes with no sore jaw and a minimally numb face that wore off an hour afterward. I have to say I'm really impressed with the quality of the work, too - it looks and feels almost exactly like it did when I had a whole tooth there.

I've got another appointment next week to do pretty much the same thing on the other side of the mouth. It might be a little trickier since this one has an equally large hole but hasn't broken off yet (yay for more drilling), but if it's anywhere near as painless as this one I think I'll be okay with it. I'm still cringing a bit in anticipation of the financial aspects (I haven't gotten any paperwork back from the insurance company yet), but thanks to PFDs I've got a bit of cash socked away, so hopefully I'll be able to cover whatever they won't. And I'll probably get my two trashed molars extracted - my mouth's always been overcrowded anyway, and it's a heckuva lot cheaper (and less painful!) than a root canal. So that's on the plan for probably early next year (so I don't overstep the "maximum benefits" for the year...yay for more insurance hoops to jump through!)

Mostly, though, I've just been feeling better about my ability to cope with all this in general. It was something of a blow finding out how bad my mouth was, but everything I've read says that if I can keep up with the flossing and such there's no reason it'll get any worse. And I guess ten minutes a night isn't such a bad thing if it saves me thousands of dollars (not to mention hours of time, and pain) in dental work later on...