My Trip to the Dentist
Why do I feel guilty every time I go to the dentist? My mouth is full of fillings I got when I was a teenager and I still feel like it somehow marks me as a bad person, like I didn't brush my teeth enough. My mom didn't even let us eat sugar cereals growing up. Jason's wife said she went to the dentist today too and got her second cavity ever, and she felt like there was something wrong with her.
I probably had a reason to feel guilty today... I haven't been to a dentist in 3 years. But that's because the last time I went the lady told me I needed 4 crowns that would cost about $3200 and I had no idea how much my insurance would cover but I knew I didn't have what I needed to pay the rest and I would get a second opinion on anything before spending that much money on it anyway. It just took me 3 years to find another dentist and get a second opinion. Turns out I was right. This guy today told me my back fillings would probably hold out for years before I needed crowns.
It probably comes down to flossing. We feel guilty because there are like 8 people in the world who actually floss all the time. I don't floss because it doesn't seem like the problem is where the floss goes. I mean, my fillings are on the top of my teeth, not where I floss. So what's the big deal about flossing? I have a theory that the people who actually floss are the same people that are really good at praying (confession: I'm not good at praying, either). I think that because it takes faith to do either because it doesn't feel like either is doing much good at the time you're doing them. If you read this, I'd like to know if you actually floss... and what your prayer life is like. My own little research study.
I read once that dentists have one of the highest suicide rates of any occupation. That makes sense. If somehow just going to the dentist can induce all these incoherent and irrational thoughts in me, it must screw up someone even more to be on the receiving end of them every day.
posted by jeff @ 10:00 PM
17 comments
17 Comments:
gotta love that awful scraping noise of those lovely metal instruments on your teeth too...gosh i really don't like the dentist visits. and now thanks to my dirty mouth (that's what it feels like when you have a cavity...like you're dirty despite the twice a day brushing, listerine swishes, and couple times a week flossing - by the way you should put a thing of floss in your car...it makes for a great red light activity...) i get to go back to one of my least favorite places! oh and one last thing...why do they insist on trying to ask you questions when they have those tools all in your mouth...like you can have a conversation?!?!
The conversation bit has to be a power thing. They're already in a position of power because you're laying down and they are standing over you. Trying to talk to you when they know you can't talk must just be another form of manipulation. I bet they have a whole class on it in dental school.
a friend of mine who is in dental school said that the ultimate dental power trip is concealed in the following fact:
Dentist don't work on Fridays and yet their salary is at minimum four times your own.
In response to the anonymous post... the office building I work in is owned by dentists and... guess what? They are closed every Friday. We do, however, get to park in their "Reserved" parking spaces on Friday since they aren't here. The doctor I work with does it every time.
Jeff, this post was awesome, btw.
These dentists that own the building Kim works in are idiots.
Growing up, I probably went to the dentist 3 times. On top of that I brushed my teeth about as often as I did homework, but I never had a cavity.
Now that I am an "adult" I do the brush twice a day thing and visit the dentist on occasion. However, the "Cosmetic" Dentists my wife shares a building with tried to tell me I had a tiny cavity and needed to get a filling. I, too, decided to get another opinion. Six months later I went to a "No Frills" dentist and he did not find any cavities.
I asked him about what they teach in dental school, and he said now-a-days they teach dentists to be salesmen. They try to get you to get procedures done that you really do not need. He says that new dentists find it hard to make a ton of money because people take better care of their teeth and do not need as much work outside of cleanings and fillings. Since, starting out they do not have a large client base in need of regular maitenance, they try to tell you that you need a night gaurd because you grind your teeth, or that you need to get some whitening done.
They are just about as bad as people going door-to-door selling vaccuum cleaners.
i had a wonderful dentist experience as well. it involved a similar sum of money and similar bad feelings about myself--my hygiene and any other life choices i had made.
so now i floss.
however, unfortunately, my prayer life has never been as good as it should.
so, i hope i'm not the outlier in your experiment.... i only floss because i had a very expensive reason to do so:).
So much fodder for my theories about dentists.
Shannon, I figured you would be one of 'those people' who doesn't have to do anything to still have perfect teeth (yes, I'm bitter). And I can't believe they actually teach them that stuff.
Bethany, your post makes me think we should pay people to pray, but that is probably sacrilegious.
I left out the last part of my visit. I get done and they tell me I need a deep cleaning (covered by insurance) and I need to get my mouth irrigated (not covered by insurance). This just smells like one of those extra things Shannon was writing about. I have really good insurance and I can't imagine them not covering at all something I need. Does anybody know what 'irrigation' is?
Floss once a day.
Pray more often than that, but unfortunately, my prayers seem to have about the same spiritual content as what the floss is pulling off my teeth.
Nope, it ISN'T a pretty picture.
i'm a flosser, i love those floss sticks from oral B. It's like a toothbrush but on the end is a U shaped thingie and it has floss on that...it's changed my life...it's truely amazing
I found a good dentist to go to, the girl just talks like crazy and has funny stories without expecting me to say anything, and cute to boot!
As a kid i hated the dentist, i was quite a hellion when it came time to sit under the bright light, something about the whole gagging and stuff. but i've found the flossing and multiple brushings makes the visits much quicker.
As for prayer i don't know how well grounded your theory is, maybe it's all just a coencidence.
Can we have a frank conversation about floss here...last time I was at the dentist (I have a wonderful dentist, by the way!) he proceeded to tell me "My hygenist said she found a little bit of plaque between your back teeth." Maybe I had just had it as I had been thinking about my bill and the fact that I don't have dental insurance. I proceeded to snap back, "Well, I bet she did. I would too if I had one of those metal ice pick things, but instead you give me a piece of string and call it a plaque fighting device!" I thought he was going to have a heart attack he laughed so hard. I also asked if if he thought my dental x-rays made me look fat...another issue all together!
I think we would all have better oral care if they would just give us one of those metal ice-pick scrapy things when we leave instead of a toothbrush and floss.
I will also echo Shannon's sentiments in that dentists are a lot more like salesman these days.
For 24 years I never had a cavity and then when I started going to a new dentist a couple years ago, I think the second or third visit I was told I had a cavity. Fair enough. One cavity isn't a big deal.
The thing that gets me now though is that almost every time I go to this dentist, I'm told I need braces or at least these new high tech "invisible braces." Whatever. All the dentists I ever went to growing up ALL told me that I didn't need braces because I had a big mouth (for all you wise guys out there, yes, I know there's more than one way to interpret that).
So I'm looking to switch to a "no frills" dentist myself.
I was unaware that this many people even read Jeff's blog.
I was talking to davo and he pointed out that it was funny how many people are responding to this post, and how few respond to the other more "deep, philosophical" posts, Jack Bauer posts aside.
And Jeff, stop being a hater.
when i was young, my next door neighbor was a denitst. for years i wouldn't go him because i hated dentists and didn't want my esteem for him to be dismantled by seeing him at his work. He had a daughter near my age though, and has I got older she got cuter. at her urging, I finally went to see him. Two minutes after I walked out his office, I puked everyone because the "bubble-gum" flavored flouride really tasted like week old brussle-sprouts. Needless to say, I never talked to his daughter again. I hate dentists.
My flossing comes and goes in spurts. Sometimes I'll do it faithfully every night for a week. Sometimes it's only a few times a week. Then I will go for a month or two without it. Every time I do it for a couple of nights in a row I begin to think, "Why is it so hard for me to do this?" Then I fall back out of the habit. It's kind of like how I am with practicing an instrument or trying to finish a book with good content, but dry writing.
I pray just about every day. But I can't say that it's usually deep, heartfelt, sweat as drops of blood kinds of praying.
I think we dread the dentist for the same reasons we sometimes dread opening up the Bible or praying. We're afraid of what might be found there.
I am truly amazed at how much conversation the dentist can spark!
I am also not a fan of dentists. I think it's inherited, as my father practically has to be put under in order to have his mouth checked out.
In fact, I can't remember the last time I went to the dentist. I'm pretty sure I was still covered by my parents' insurance, which would have been ... probably 5 years ago? Wow.
My thoughts are... if it doesn't hurt, must be fine.
As for prayer, I'm a daily pray-er. But like my dental ideas, I pray harder when things hurt. Coincidence?
I don't floss, but I do pray. Hmmm..Maybe I should only floss when I pray...then I would floss regularly. Or I would never pray. Crap- thought I was onto something.
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