If something can go wrong..oh, it will.

The Dentist. I really hate going. I never have. When I was little, I bit the dentist, and was kindly asked (er..told) to go to a dentist that specialized in children. So I did. For a long time, I think til I was 12. It was a really fun place to go, well, before I went back to the dentist room. There were games and puzzles...It was like they were trying to trick everyone into thinking it was a thrilling place to be. It wasn't. I didn't like going, especially when I had to swish my mouth with that flouride junk. Thank goodness I no longer have to deal with that! I've always had a really, really, bad gag reflex, and all those long tools that dentists have really make me feel miserable. I think last year was the first time I actually succesfully made it through those xrays they take without gagging really bad. I mean, they used to not even take xrays because it was so bad. A few years ago when getting a root canal (more on that in a second), the dentist got really upset with his hygenist because when i started gagging, she didn't even take it out. Anyways, on to the point of this (I wrote about this awhile back, but I'll do a brief recap for those who didn't read it). Back in 2005, I had to get an emergency root canal on a tooth because of a cavity that really...was bad. It was horrible in itself, but it was nice to get it done and not have pain in my mouth anymore. Fast forward to this last April. That tooth was hurting really bad. This was NOT supposed to happen! I looked at my tooth, and realized the gum was really swollen. I went into the dentist, and since my reguar dentist wasn't in, some other guy looked at it, and told me to go to an endodentist, which is a dentist that specializes in root canals. I went there and he basically told me my tooth was beyond saving, and it had to be removed because the root canal had failed (this happens to only 5% of root canals...). Great, just what I wanted to hear. I'm only 18 and I'm already having to get teeth pulled? I cried the whole way home, thinking that everyone would think i was weird,even though in reality it was in the back of my mouth and no one would notice unless they were looking into my mouth, very closely. Anyways, I got the tooth pulled, and my dentist said i needed either an implant or a bridge because my teeth would start to shift, and it would mess up my mouth. Those are both pretty darn expensive procedures, so we opted for the less of two evils, and what my dentist recommended, the bridge. That procedure took several visits to complete, but finally in July, it was done! I was so happy, and once again, felt like my dental woes were over. This last weekend, that part of my mouth was hurting reallllyyyy bad. However, I thought it might have been my wisdom teeth this time! Well, I went into the dentist, and although my wisdom teeth were about to surface, it shouldn't be causing all that pain. My dentist started saying that it was probably the bridge, and after isolating the pain, i realized it was. He began to tell me and my mom that I might need to get a root canal, this week, on one of the teeth on the bridge, because sometimes when putting a bridge in, it kills the roots of the teeth underneath it.......AH! This is not what i wanted to hear, and he said that he would want me to get it before I left for college, just so it didn't get infected. He decided to take some xrays then, and decided the roots probably weren't dead, but that the bridge had been put on incorrectly and that was probably causing the pain. (Later when i went in to get this taken care of, he said this very,very rarely happens. Oh, of course it would happen to me!). At that point, he numbed me up and used this scary tool that he thought might be able to "knock" the bridge into place. He warned me that this could break my tooth or the bridge. This just about made me cry. Luckily, it didn't, but it made me sure grateful that I was numbed up really well..Because it jolted me so much, and I can't imagine the pain that would have accompanied that! Well, that didn't work, so he had me come in 3 hours later, and basically, they took the bridge off and made an imprint for a new one, which they had to have rush delivered for next Thursday morning. The day I'm leaving for BYU. Needless to say, this has not been a good day! I'm just hoping and praying this will be the end to all of dental issues. Ah!

(just for the record, I haven't had a cavity for 6 years..Not since that cavity was found in 2002, and it didn't get taken care of til 2005. I really do have good teeth. I swear. Just take this as a lesson to make your children brush and floss there teeth..lots!)

The end.