my dentist endorses second chances (fact)

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the dentist across the road because of a head-splitting toothache. I'd already had an inkling it had something to do with a previous tooth job that I had damaged and then conveniently forgot about (no pain, no attention = classic adult evaluation of things), not to mention the fact that I am unnaturally scared of dentists, even if they're dorky-hot like that one across the road. (This is, by the way, a "couple assessment" - meaning, the gf and I approve, LOL)

So, yeah.  I was in her clinic yesterday, because really, toothaches I can manage, but toothaches coupled with headaches? Not so much. The other day it hurt so bad I couldn't keep my eyes open in front of the monitor so I figured I better haul my ass to the dentist's before someone is left with no other recourse but a root canal (More painful than unrequited love, some of my sources say.)

When I got there, it was a newly rearranged office -- the last time I was there was a considerable time ago, and I really expected to be reprimanded for missing my scheduled visits (LOL still a twelve-year-old having her braces fixed when put inside a dentist clinic after all these years -- oh have I mentioned I had four of my molars taken out when I had to do braces when I was ten? Now you know.) but then when the doc walked in she was all smiles and saying, Well, don't you look familiar?

I was here a long time ago, I said, almost appending, You do remember my girlfriend? but held it back. Later that night, I told Andrea what I'd learned in that visit - the doctor didn't like math so much, so she entered dentistry, but she remembers being good in simple Algebra (an oxymoron LOL) and Trigonometry and Geom in high school; also she doesn't like reading fiction and pocket books, but she does like the Internet and Facebook (After I'd asked, So if you're not into reading that much, then what do you like to do then? Sports?)

Unfortunately, Andrea, for all her repeated visits, never spoke to her on a personal level AT ALL. WTF you make me seem so flirty in comparison, love.

(Cut for dental adventures, etc)


Her: So have you found out if she's actually on our team yet?
Me: Christ, I haven't gotten that far. Yet.

Oh, LOL. If I ever manage to get to the level where we're exchanging stories about first loves, I'd be sure to update you all.

Anyway. So she checked up on the tooth (You should have brought this in sooner, you know, she said) and did an x-ray (I don't want to do anything rash, like an extraction or root canal right away, right? she said.) She showed me the film (Here, we nearly hit the core, she said, adding, It's the infection that causes the pain, right here, her finger hovering above the small space.) My god, I was terrified. No, really, wringing my hands together, sweaty and clammy -- terrified.

Perhaps sensing how afraid I was (LOL 25 years old, can't go to the dentist alone without being so frightened), she started asking me about LIFE - so what it is you do? Oh, I'm a researcher. Oh that must be full of math - I hate math, that's how I got into dentistry, I hate math, and in dentistry we had very little math. I'm a journalism major, I said. Do you like what you do, she asked, and I said yes, very. You have work today, then? I looked at the clock. I said, I do, but if you're going to hurt me… We laughed. Now, I wouldn't want to do that, she said.

(I estimate age poorly - maybe she's in her early-to-mid thirties. It was like bantering with an older sister. Andrea and I have always wondered how she must look like when she's not wearing those dentist scrubs and you know, wearing normal clothes. Maybe she's always in jeans. Maybe she's fun to drink with, if she drinks at all. Damn, I should have asked her about FIFA.)

Thankfully, it wasn't a major surgery or anything; she insisted she didn't want to take the tooth out. Let's try to save it, she said. Let's give it a second chance. I let out a little squee, dentist equipment in my mouth notwithstanding. Second chances! I like the sound of that!

Let's put something here that'd help the dentyne that got damaged grow back, she said. And then I'd give you antibiotics for the infection -- a bit pricey though, is that all right? I said, I don't care, just make it go away (LOL SERIOUSLY CAN I SOUND MORE LIKE I'M 12).

Outside in the empty receiving area as she was writing me a prescription, she asked me how I was feeling. Had I been feeling better, I would have ASKED ABOUT FIFA, or if she was like, a runner, because of the sports magazines on her table, but Jesus, my head felt like it was filling with lead. Go get to a drug store, she said. Eat some crackers, drink one pill, then stock up on pain killers. Observe for a bit. After a few days, we'll know, won't we? And then she led me to the door; I was holding my head in my hand. The Universe was actually putting a stop to my nosiness LOL I love it, never change Universe. Never.

So here I am now, relishing my second chance with my fixed tooth, drinking my antibiotics (P400+ for three 500mg capsules, ouch), taking care not to overdose on pain killers (because I heard they're bad for you LOL).

So, see here. When something hurts, it doesn't always have to be 1) permanent removal  or 2) permanent deadening of nerve endings. There are some things worth a second shot, sometimes someone suggests filling the damaged gaps in with something that'd heal it, and sometimes you don't have the assurance that it'd work but you have to hope it would anyway. LOL extraneous, but here's where I turn everything around me into metaphors, because I like them and because I can and because I know at some point someone's bound to find them useful, so there. :)