My First Dental Visit In A VERY Long Time

Last Sunday while I was eating I suddenly became aware that something was wrong in my mouth. My very back molar on the bottom left side of my mouth had a piece of tooth missing! This would be traumatic for most people but you need to understand that in my 29 years of life I've NEVER had a cavity filled. That's not to say that I didn't figure that I had a few since it's been at least eleven years *cough*probablythirteen*cough* since my butt has sat in a dentist's chair. I won't deny a few panicked tears when I realized the inevitable trip to the dentist.

After a week of dread, this morning found me sitting in an exam chair. It was interesting to see how far dental technology has progressed since the last time I went. They took x-rays of most of my teeth that appeared on the computer screen instantly! The panoramic x-ray was the same as before but it was still kinda fun to once again see the healed crack in my jaw: my only bone that has ever broken. (It was broken during my birth but nobody knew until I was 13. The dentist was interested in seeing it, too. He said it's not something that you see every day.)

After looking at the x-rays, the dentist said that my teeth actually look pretty good. Yes, there's the one big cavity but nothing else that is big. Then he did the real exam and looked at my teeth and gums. While I do have a total of six cavities- yep, five more small ones- my gums are healthy, I have minimal plaque and tarter and no big concerns. :) After the cavities are filled- two separate visits for that- I'll be looking at quite the healthy mouth! It's crazy to think that I've gone this long without seeing a dentist and was dreading hearing that my mouth was simply rotting only to find out that I only have six cavities.

Yes, you could say, "Wow! Six is a lot of cavities for one dental visit!" But when you look at it from the perspective of six cavities in my entire 29 years- or even six cavities in more than a decade with no professional dental care- well, that's really not bad!

Branden has an appointment for tomorrow. He already has a mouth full of silver and he knows he's getting more fillings. This is an old game to him. He's been telling me that there's nothing to worry about this whole week but I didn't really believe him. Sure, there's still a lot of pain to come for both of us but we'll probably both survive.