Fear Factor: Dental Exam
So I finally did it. Sort of.
I made the first step anyway...or maybe making the appointment was the first step...so the second step towards facing my dentist fear...I went for my initial visit. My first visit in...almost 10 years (gasp!) I don't know how I let it go so long...but I've never liked going to the dentist. I think my fear comes from childhood when I ate sweets a lot and brushed my teeth a lot less...let's just say I spent a lot of time in the dentist chair as a kid. I have always hated the sound and feel of that metal scraper running over my teeth. As I sat in the chair today my teeth started to throb just thinking about it. Perhaps the thought of that chair is why I've been an avid brusher and flosser in the last decade.
The last dental visit I can remember was in 2001 before heading off to Europe for a semester abroad...I had some tooth pain that I thought was a cavity but turned out to be nothing.
"It's not that bad" my new dentist said after looking at my x-rays and doing oral exam, "...but there's some work to be done." Turns out, "some work" is: a deep cleaning on my lower teeth followed by a regular cleaning, two of my 1980's era silver cavities are falling apart and need to be replaced by crowns and eventually I need to get a 5-in-one gradual invisible retainer to get my bottom teeth back in the order they were in before my wisdom teeth were taken out...and once they're back in place I'll need a permanent wired retainer placed in the back to prevent some sort of tooth stacking that happens when you get older. I'm sure glad he said "It's not that bad" because if he hadn't I would have thought all that sounded pretty "bad". But...these were all things I was expecting to hear so there were no major surprises. Now to prepare myself for that first cleaning (scrape...scrape...ahhhh!!)...in 3 weeks.
In other news...Gunnar pulled himself to standing for the first time officially yesterday and hasn't stopped practicing since! I didn't see him do the first one but when I turned around and saw him standing in his crib and said "Oh!!! Look at you!!!" He just started laughing and laughing...he was sooo proud of himself!! Too cute!
I made the first step anyway...or maybe making the appointment was the first step...so the second step towards facing my dentist fear...I went for my initial visit. My first visit in...almost 10 years (gasp!) I don't know how I let it go so long...but I've never liked going to the dentist. I think my fear comes from childhood when I ate sweets a lot and brushed my teeth a lot less...let's just say I spent a lot of time in the dentist chair as a kid. I have always hated the sound and feel of that metal scraper running over my teeth. As I sat in the chair today my teeth started to throb just thinking about it. Perhaps the thought of that chair is why I've been an avid brusher and flosser in the last decade.
The last dental visit I can remember was in 2001 before heading off to Europe for a semester abroad...I had some tooth pain that I thought was a cavity but turned out to be nothing.
"It's not that bad" my new dentist said after looking at my x-rays and doing oral exam, "...but there's some work to be done." Turns out, "some work" is: a deep cleaning on my lower teeth followed by a regular cleaning, two of my 1980's era silver cavities are falling apart and need to be replaced by crowns and eventually I need to get a 5-in-one gradual invisible retainer to get my bottom teeth back in the order they were in before my wisdom teeth were taken out...and once they're back in place I'll need a permanent wired retainer placed in the back to prevent some sort of tooth stacking that happens when you get older. I'm sure glad he said "It's not that bad" because if he hadn't I would have thought all that sounded pretty "bad". But...these were all things I was expecting to hear so there were no major surprises. Now to prepare myself for that first cleaning (scrape...scrape...ahhhh!!)...in 3 weeks.
In other news...Gunnar pulled himself to standing for the first time officially yesterday and hasn't stopped practicing since! I didn't see him do the first one but when I turned around and saw him standing in his crib and said "Oh!!! Look at you!!!" He just started laughing and laughing...he was sooo proud of himself!! Too cute!
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