Do I have to?

I've been dreading it all week, but I kicked myself in the ass and got into the dentist chair today. I HATE the dentist, like have-an-insane-fear-of hate the dentist. I don't hate my dentist himself, merely the idea of a person that scrapes and drills into your teeth. How barbaric.

My parents only brought me to the dentist once as a child. Yes, you read that right. I was around 8 years old, and, naturally, the dentist found a cavity since my parents never really bothered with teaching us to brush our teeth (or buying us toothbrushes for that matter). I know, what planet are my parents from?

When they had to pay the bill for the cavity, that ended any future trips there. They had their own teeth to worry about; I was young so my teeth wouldn't go bad for years. My mom needed root canals, and my dad needed all his teeth pulled for dentures. Yikes.

I started going on my own at age 18 because I had insurance. By then, I had 5 cavities! And the teeth cleaning for that visit... holy God. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

I also needed my wisdom teeth pulled, but that little experience wasn't that bad. The surgeon that performed the extraction was quick and precise. I appreciated that, especially because I couldn't afford the knock-out gas for the procedure. Hearing your teeth cracked out of your mouth is most unpleasant.

But the piece d'resistance, the reason for my hatred, came about from one specific cavity-filling visit. It was the last one of the 5, and I was so done with going every few weeks. I had spent hundreds out of my pocket for all the other stuff (insurance only covered so much), and I just wanted it to end.

This filling was supposed to be routine. And I thought it was. When the dentist kind of sucked in his breath and paused during it, I thought it was a bit strange. He didn't say anything to me and carried on until the filling was complete. We said our goodbyes, and I went home.

And then the novacaine wore off. Holy shit! The pain was atrocious. I'd never felt anything like it. And then I realized... he had hit the nerve. He had drilled too far down and hit the f'ing nerve. I quickly took a percocet (which I had gotten for the wisdom teeth extraction and never used because there wasn't really any pain with that), and tried to sleep it off.

I awoke 4 hours later, and it had settled down into a pulsing throb. I took another percocet, and luckily, the pain was gone by the next day. I never went back to that dentist again.

Many years later, that tooth started to chip around the filling. I was terrified of going to get it fixed. So I waited. And waited. And waited.

Harry finally talked me into going to his dentist. Surprisingly, the guy did an amazing job, and it didn't hurt one bit.

Unfortunately, my cleanings were still torturous for some reason. As the years have gone by, they've gotten better. And I haven't had any problems.

At my last cleaning in June, the hygenist noticed that that stupid tooth was chipping again. The dentist had told me I'd probably have to get it fixed every 5 years or so, and I was at about 4.5.

Today, I will say, was the best dentist visit I have ever had. The whole thing didn't even take 10 minutes, and I didn't need novacaine. Yay me.

I'm still glad I don't have to go back for my next cleaning until December though.