Saturday, October 08, 2005

A Confession

I have a fear. Sure, we all have them. And mine is not that unusual I guess. But I'm going to have to face it soon.

I am afraid of going to the dentist.

And in almost 36 years, I have never been to one. But I am afraid to go. There's something about needles in my mouth, drills, scraping, drooling, and embarassment that has prevented me from going. That and no money. But I had dental insurance when I taught school 10 years ago and never could muster up the courage to go. But now I'm going to have to because I have major cavity that is causing a great deal of pain right now.

I've pretty much functioned on the avoidance technique of dealing with the problem. Normally I try to tolerate such pain until it goes away, but it's to the point where I don't think I can tolerate it much more.

I'm afraid that he's going to tell me what a terrible state my teeth are in and that he'll just have to yank them all. O.k. I don't think they're that bad, but I know I probably need some major dental work that will probably involve root canals and such. And I have insurance again... I think... I never got an official card or anything, but I did sign up for it. But there are going to be some payments involved and I'm worried that fixing my teeth will cost me an arm and a leg. But I'm going to have to do something. That is why I didn't sleep last night. I ran out of tylenol. That's why I went to Walmart this morning for tylenol and orajel. It's helping some, but it's still not enough.

And now that probably means more days to take off from school. More money to spend. But if I can get rid of the pain, I guess it will be worth it.

3 comments:

Susanlee said...

I always just make them knock me out, not always for cleanings and fillings (my first filling when i was 9 or 10 i was so afraid of the needle with the anesthetic that I made them do it without any...yikes), anyway if they're doing any kind of pulling or serious drilling I need to be completely unconcious. Its not really the pain though, its the sound....*shiver*

Summer said...

You poor thing. Susanlee is right. If you have to have any major work done, ask for the gas!

Unknown said...

Gas is wonderful...I had a wonderful dentist when I had a root canal (sp). Even after then pain meds wore off my gums wern't even tender. I did have some weird dreams from the gas but did sleep through most of the thing. The dentist was nice to look at too.