Dental Thoughts

Went and had my teeth cleaned this morning.

Two words come to mind: Horrible Nightmare.

Argh.

Sadly, I inherited problem teeth. When the hygienist, during my last cleaning 6 months ago, told me my teeth and gums looked great, well, I nearly fainted. No one in the dental profession had ever said such words to me. Must have been the fact that I've faithfully, daily been taking 2,000 mg.'s of vitamin C, I thought.

Well, Vitamin C performed no miracles for me these past 6 months. Three of my teeth had chipped and I knew trouble would be mine my next dental 'visit' (a word with way too much of a positive spin on it). I drove into the parking lot and saw not a single other car there this morning and oh! I wished with all my heart there'd be a note on the door saying, "Doctor ____ had an emergency. Call us later for an appointment."

No such luck. No such note.

My so-called 'visit' was bad. Really bad.

But it was funny, also. I mean, yesterday I received an email 'forward' from a friend, where you answer questions about yourself. One of the questions was, "Name four places you would rather be right now."

And well, yesterday? I couldn't think of one single place. I thought only how much I love living where I do inside this house which always needs work of some kind.

But today in that dentist's chair, while the hygienist filed and sawed, poked and jammed her fingers around in my mouth, well, suddenly I could think of 4,000 places I'd rather be!

Hawaii, Prince Edward Island, Disney World, New England. Endless places like those.

But as more of the sawing, filing and jamming (and lecturing) went on, other places came to mind. Suddenly I thought, hey! This is so bad that I'd rather even be in a blessed traffic jam right now or in a supermarket line so long I'd question whether I'd ever get home. Or hey, in a nice, sweltering heat wave with no air-conditioning for miles around.

But oh well, I made it out alive (just barely), even after the extra x-rays she forced me to have so she could show them to the dentist (who was on vacation. Probably in Hawaii.) He'll call me if there's a problem. 

(I know the hygienist thinks he'll be calling me the minute he gets back.)

But now it's later and I've had some nice coffee and tater tots (the ultimate comfort food) and I can think straight. In fact, I can remind myself there are people who'dbe thrilled if their only medical problem was annoying, chipping teeth. There are folks in doctor's offices and even on operating tables right this moment who would consider me the most blessed person alive.

I would have to agree with them.

And may I be wise enough to keep all these things in their correct perspective.



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