Dentist Visit

I went to the dentist yesterday. It had been three years since my previous visit. I used to go every six months, but then ... Covid. I don't care to have someone who might have Covid breathing at me 18 inches from my face, even if they're wearing a mask. But time passed and I decided it was time to go to a dentist, and I chose a dentist who has an office about 5 minutes walking time from my home. His office is less than one minute away by car. 

This was my first visit, so a young woman cleaned my teeth and took a lot of x-rays. The dentist did meet me and we chatted for a couple minutes. He's from Venezuela. He complimented me on the way I rolled the R in his name. I took Spanish lessons for two years, but that was sixty years ago. More recently, I tried taking Spanish lessons from Duolingo but the grammar and verb conjugation were too difficult and my brain was too old for so much new information. 

The rest of the day was uneventful. I went to bed around 10PM and, because I had not slept at all during the previous night, I went to sleep quickly. I awoke around 1AM with a toothache. I lay in bed for about thirty minutes and the toothache didn't get any better. I knew I was not going to get any sleep with it. So I got up and took a couple of acetaminophens. I stayed up another hour until the acetaminophen was taking effect and the pain was beginning to ease, then I went back to bed and fell asleep. I attribute the toothache to the dental cleaning. Probably a bit of water and maybe some plaque got pushed under the edge of my gum. Today, twelve hours later, the pain hasn't returned. I've got my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

After the dental cleaning I left the office with five new appointments. The first appointment is called a followup. The next four appointments were for filling new cavities. And though they're not scheduled yet, I'm supposed to come back for two new crowns. The crowns are going to cost about a thousand dollars each, which I think is a lot, but the dentist said that without them, those two teeth will fall apart. Actually, my teeth have been falling apart since I was a kid. My brother once told me, when we were kids, that my teeth were as hard as oatmeal. When I was attending college I couldn't afford to see a dentist. So when I graduated and had a job, I went to a dentist. He found three old fillings that needed to be drilled out and replaced, plus fourteen new cavities to be drilled and filled. He scheduled appointments on two consecutive days, about four hours each day. The impressions made by my fingers gripping the armrests of his chair are probably still visible. I recall leaving his office and getting into a taxi (my car was in a repair shop). I said to the taxi driver in my best novocaine-numbed speech, "I migglee yass ump to inruig coloomba." The driver looked at me as if I were a Martian. So I began pointing this way and that way, and he followed my hand signals and got me home.

I look forward to my five new dental appointments (more if I get the crowns). Don't you hate it when the receptionist looks up from behind her desk and says, "You again!?" At least the bookkeeper will give me a warm greeting.