50% less wise
Hey all, I know the last post was kind of heavy, so I thought this time I would tell you about something a little more mundane. As part of my preparations to leave, I realized "Oh crap, I'm not going to have medical insurance after I leave Cathie Gill, Inc.!" so I made an appointment to see the dentist down the hall from my office. She told me I had great teeth, but that there were cavities in my upper right and lower right wisdom teeth (that's 1 and 32 to all you dentists out there). I appreciated the thought, despite the inherent contradiction, and asked what I should do. They said that they could fill the cavities, but it would be better to just extract them.
Yesterday, after many reschedulings and much drama about the time I would be out of the office (my boss is crazy. Certifiably crazy), I finally had my appointment with Dr. Ahklagi (which is, may I add, very easy to say while there's a whole bunch of stuff in your mouth. Maybe that's why she became a dentist...) I noticed some things about my visit that I thought I would share.
It's much scarier to go to the dentist when you are a grown-up. Dr. Ficarelli, my childhood dentist, would slap a pair of sunglasses on me to help with the glare of the dentist light, tell me he was administering "sleepy juice" and get to work. This time I had all kinds of consent forms and warnings about dry socket and all kinds of horrible things which made me very very nervous. Also, I had the displeasure of knowing exactly what they were doing to me.
Because this was an "easy" extraction, in that my teeth had both "erupted" out of my gums, they didn't give me gas or general anesthetic, just several shots in the gums. I don't know if they forgot I was there or what, but the doctor and her assistant were discussing the process in easy enough language that I could understand. For instance:
"The roots are too strong on this one and I don't want to pull anymore. I guess we're going to have to go with a hemisection." Well, I managed to crack the super-secret dentist code, to know that she was CUTTING MY TOOTH IN HALF. Yikes!
It also made me nervous to hear the doctor ask for certain devices with which neither she nor the nurse seemed terribly familiar. "I need that clamp thing. No, not that one, the one with the flat edge - yeah, the one on the left there."
If I hadn't had nine instruments and a finger in my mouth, I would have shouted "Have you DONE this before?"
Lastly, after they had pried my teeth out and were stitching me up, these two ladies were chatting. One has her fingers in my mouth and is running a needle in and out of my gums, and one is handing her very important surgical items. They are both mere inches away from my face, and they're going on and on. About personal stuff! It was totally surreal. I sort of began to question if I was actually there. Fortunately for me, the dull ache of my jaw where my teeth had been ripped out helped to keep me grounded. From what I gathered, the dentist, who is Indian I think, has been seeing a guy that has not gained the approval of her parents. I think he's divorced, and maybe has some kids from a previous marriage. The nurse is a product of her Catholic upbringing, and thinks that divorce is never right, no matter what the situation, but the dentist thinks there's a little more of a gray area than that. Plus he's such a great guy and treats her right. Is this making you feel awkward yet, readers? Like you know too much about a stranger? Imagine how I felt! I was there!
Anyhoo, they seem to have done an ok job. I'm stitched up and except for a pretty bad jaw/headache last night and a little bleeding this morning, I haven't had any real discomfort. They didn't even need to prescribe me any drugs. I should hopefully be able to make it to the premiere of Star Wars!
Yesterday, after many reschedulings and much drama about the time I would be out of the office (my boss is crazy. Certifiably crazy), I finally had my appointment with Dr. Ahklagi (which is, may I add, very easy to say while there's a whole bunch of stuff in your mouth. Maybe that's why she became a dentist...) I noticed some things about my visit that I thought I would share.
It's much scarier to go to the dentist when you are a grown-up. Dr. Ficarelli, my childhood dentist, would slap a pair of sunglasses on me to help with the glare of the dentist light, tell me he was administering "sleepy juice" and get to work. This time I had all kinds of consent forms and warnings about dry socket and all kinds of horrible things which made me very very nervous. Also, I had the displeasure of knowing exactly what they were doing to me.
Because this was an "easy" extraction, in that my teeth had both "erupted" out of my gums, they didn't give me gas or general anesthetic, just several shots in the gums. I don't know if they forgot I was there or what, but the doctor and her assistant were discussing the process in easy enough language that I could understand. For instance:
"The roots are too strong on this one and I don't want to pull anymore. I guess we're going to have to go with a hemisection." Well, I managed to crack the super-secret dentist code, to know that she was CUTTING MY TOOTH IN HALF. Yikes!
It also made me nervous to hear the doctor ask for certain devices with which neither she nor the nurse seemed terribly familiar. "I need that clamp thing. No, not that one, the one with the flat edge - yeah, the one on the left there."
If I hadn't had nine instruments and a finger in my mouth, I would have shouted "Have you DONE this before?"
Lastly, after they had pried my teeth out and were stitching me up, these two ladies were chatting. One has her fingers in my mouth and is running a needle in and out of my gums, and one is handing her very important surgical items. They are both mere inches away from my face, and they're going on and on. About personal stuff! It was totally surreal. I sort of began to question if I was actually there. Fortunately for me, the dull ache of my jaw where my teeth had been ripped out helped to keep me grounded. From what I gathered, the dentist, who is Indian I think, has been seeing a guy that has not gained the approval of her parents. I think he's divorced, and maybe has some kids from a previous marriage. The nurse is a product of her Catholic upbringing, and thinks that divorce is never right, no matter what the situation, but the dentist thinks there's a little more of a gray area than that. Plus he's such a great guy and treats her right. Is this making you feel awkward yet, readers? Like you know too much about a stranger? Imagine how I felt! I was there!
Anyhoo, they seem to have done an ok job. I'm stitched up and except for a pretty bad jaw/headache last night and a little bleeding this morning, I haven't had any real discomfort. They didn't even need to prescribe me any drugs. I should hopefully be able to make it to the premiere of Star Wars!
posted by Dan at 10:55 AM
1 Comments:
Dan- I too had many complicated dental visits before my insurance expired when I left Georgetown Hospital. 3 cavities and a crown to be specific, which involved 2 visits for the cavities and 2 visits for the crown after my initial checkup. I guess that is what I get for not going to the dentist in the last 2 years. However, I have been going to this dentist for my whole life, as have my sisters and my parents for the last 30 years, so he knows better than to discuss too personal of information infront of me. But I understand the pain of having nine instuments and 2 fingers in your mouth. It sucks bigtime.
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