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miko2I've known for a long, long time that my teeth are bad. This is what happens when you don't go to the dentist for 12 years or so. Right? Right.
And it's not as if I haven't had the opportunity or that I'm afraid or anything. I've always known how important regular dental checkups are. Before I moved out from home, I saw the dentist every six months. After I began working full time, I took advantage of my dental coverage and saw the dentist on my own. And I remember clearly that I ridiculed Alan (who at the time was my roommate and worked at WOSCA with me) because he failed to take advantage of the same coverage.
And then, after that one visit that I managed to schedule on my own, I never saw the dentist again.
This is a tale of criminal laziness. Because I am lazy, and scheduling a dentist appointment takes effort. You have to dial the phone, for one thing. And you have to know what number you want to dial before you even GET to the dialing stage. So, as you can see, it was just too hard for me to do, and year after year went by and I kept saying that I needed to schedule and appointment but I never did.
And so I knew that my teeth had problems. And they continued to get worse. And then WOSCA went out of business, and everyone said go see the dentist now while you still can, and I said yeah I need to do that, and I didn't.
And then for a while I had no coverage, even after I got a new job, because it takes like six months or a year for the coverage to kick in. So I knew I couldn't see the dentist right away, but as soon as that coverage kicked in, I was going to do it.
And... well, I've been at Penninsula for more two and a half years. I've had nearly two years of coverage. Meanwhile, my teeth occasionally hurt, a sure sign that they were about to fall out of my head. I had bad breath, which would be from my rotting teeth. I had trouble flossing between two teeth, which surely indicated that there was a jagged gaping cavity there. I noticed some blackness around one tooth near the gums, which was proof positive that that tooth was long dead and rotting away. I felt guilty because I usually only brush once a day, and sometimes on weekends I skipped a day, and I only flossed once a week or so. When I drank pop or ate candy, I felt guilty, but after all the damage had already been done. Right? I mean you can't avoid the dentist for 12 years and not have some problems that need fixing. Right?
So before Thanksgiving one of my teeth was hurting again, and then my jaw felt a little weird when I opened my mouth, and I figured not only is my tooth bad but maybe even my whole jawbone is rotting away, who knows? Even though the tooth pain went away after a couple of days -- that only means that it had probably died.
So I finally went to see the dentist. It was remarkably easy to do -- I had a dental appointment arranged and was there in less than 24 hours. The doctor looked in my mouth, took a lot of x-ray pictures, and said, "You've got a couple of chips on your front teeth. Let me sand those down." And he did so. And then he reccomended that I come back for a full cleaning session because there was some tartar buildup.
And that was it.
He also said that I had the deepest, healthiest roots he's seen in a long long time, and that my teeth were fine and I should keep doing whatever I'm doing.
I saw those roots on the x-rays. It's a very good thing I don't need any teeth pulled, because it would probably be messy.
But I have to wonder... did the doc miss something? Is it really true that I don't even have any cavities, or loose fillings, or anything? Huh.
Well anyway it was such a nice day that I stopped at Half Price Books and picked up a bunch of cds, many for $1. I got Chumba Wumba's Tubthumper cd for $1. I got the Barenaked Ladies Stunt cd for $1. One-hit wonders are easy to find cheap a few years after their hit has faded.
For $1 I got a Mellissa Ethridge cd, the soundtrack for Jesus Christ Superstar (cool!), The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and an 80's music collection with things like She Blinded Me With Science, Too Shy, and Turning Japenese on it. Not bad for a buck.
For a couple bucks more I got a brand new Angelique Kidjo cd and a Mynta cd. When you can find a Mynta cd used and it's not First Summer, you're having a really good day. ^_^ Their stuff is rare and hard to get ahold of.
And I picked up my comics, and bought a burrito, and I have time to relax before going to work. Who cares if I only got five hours of sleep? I won't notice that for several hours yet. ^_^
And it's not as if I haven't had the opportunity or that I'm afraid or anything. I've always known how important regular dental checkups are. Before I moved out from home, I saw the dentist every six months. After I began working full time, I took advantage of my dental coverage and saw the dentist on my own. And I remember clearly that I ridiculed Alan (who at the time was my roommate and worked at WOSCA with me) because he failed to take advantage of the same coverage.
And then, after that one visit that I managed to schedule on my own, I never saw the dentist again.
This is a tale of criminal laziness. Because I am lazy, and scheduling a dentist appointment takes effort. You have to dial the phone, for one thing. And you have to know what number you want to dial before you even GET to the dialing stage. So, as you can see, it was just too hard for me to do, and year after year went by and I kept saying that I needed to schedule and appointment but I never did.
And so I knew that my teeth had problems. And they continued to get worse. And then WOSCA went out of business, and everyone said go see the dentist now while you still can, and I said yeah I need to do that, and I didn't.
And then for a while I had no coverage, even after I got a new job, because it takes like six months or a year for the coverage to kick in. So I knew I couldn't see the dentist right away, but as soon as that coverage kicked in, I was going to do it.
And... well, I've been at Penninsula for more two and a half years. I've had nearly two years of coverage. Meanwhile, my teeth occasionally hurt, a sure sign that they were about to fall out of my head. I had bad breath, which would be from my rotting teeth. I had trouble flossing between two teeth, which surely indicated that there was a jagged gaping cavity there. I noticed some blackness around one tooth near the gums, which was proof positive that that tooth was long dead and rotting away. I felt guilty because I usually only brush once a day, and sometimes on weekends I skipped a day, and I only flossed once a week or so. When I drank pop or ate candy, I felt guilty, but after all the damage had already been done. Right? I mean you can't avoid the dentist for 12 years and not have some problems that need fixing. Right?
So before Thanksgiving one of my teeth was hurting again, and then my jaw felt a little weird when I opened my mouth, and I figured not only is my tooth bad but maybe even my whole jawbone is rotting away, who knows? Even though the tooth pain went away after a couple of days -- that only means that it had probably died.
So I finally went to see the dentist. It was remarkably easy to do -- I had a dental appointment arranged and was there in less than 24 hours. The doctor looked in my mouth, took a lot of x-ray pictures, and said, "You've got a couple of chips on your front teeth. Let me sand those down." And he did so. And then he reccomended that I come back for a full cleaning session because there was some tartar buildup.
And that was it.
He also said that I had the deepest, healthiest roots he's seen in a long long time, and that my teeth were fine and I should keep doing whatever I'm doing.
I saw those roots on the x-rays. It's a very good thing I don't need any teeth pulled, because it would probably be messy.
But I have to wonder... did the doc miss something? Is it really true that I don't even have any cavities, or loose fillings, or anything? Huh.
Well anyway it was such a nice day that I stopped at Half Price Books and picked up a bunch of cds, many for $1. I got Chumba Wumba's Tubthumper cd for $1. I got the Barenaked Ladies Stunt cd for $1. One-hit wonders are easy to find cheap a few years after their hit has faded.
For $1 I got a Mellissa Ethridge cd, the soundtrack for Jesus Christ Superstar (cool!), The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and an 80's music collection with things like She Blinded Me With Science, Too Shy, and Turning Japenese on it. Not bad for a buck.
For a couple bucks more I got a brand new Angelique Kidjo cd and a Mynta cd. When you can find a Mynta cd used and it's not First Summer, you're having a really good day. ^_^ Their stuff is rare and hard to get ahold of.
And I picked up my comics, and bought a burrito, and I have time to relax before going to work. Who cares if I only got five hours of sleep? I won't notice that for several hours yet. ^_^
