Yay!!!!!!! No dentist for 6 months FINALLY

Yesterday I successfully endured the weekly visits to the dentist and I AM GLAD...... (sounds like an ad for GLAD, but it is not, also am not even remotely remotely related to another GLAD, I am straight like an arrow. To be politically correct I think I should say that I am not associated with it and will probably not be interested, lest they think I am a hater and get hate mail)

So it turns out in the office that my colleague asked me why I had appointments for so many weeks. Sheepishly I replied that it was because I haven't been to a dentists for four years. Hearing that her motherly instincts came out (she is due pretty soon) and told me that it was long time and that I should not repeat it and I deserved all the pain . I was about to say something when my boss intervened and told her that he hadn't been to one for eight years........

Relieved that the focus is not on me, (I hate answering dentist related questions, they suck and so do dentists) I was silent for the while and then we moved on to the next topic (i.e. work).



Anyway so when Dr. Moon told me today that I should make the next appointment after 6 months, I was kind of relieved. Though I didn't like him for the pain on my first visit, the subsequent visits haven't been that bad.

The thing that caught me off-guard was that he was not his usual self wearing formal clothes, but he actually wore casuals and on the t-shirt it said MONKEY BUSINESS..... and am I not GLAD that it was my last appointment... at least for now????????????? Look at the picture..... and it looked to me that the monkey was drilling into something. Am I wrong to be scared????????????

Remember Kutchu????? and his glasses???

This is a very funny story about a friend who is quite absent minded...

The story as she narrated to me (of course modified to fit the style of this blog)....

She was doing her Post Graduation in some college in Delhi. She usually drives to the college as it was just 10 mins away from her home..... (dunno kaun sa galli wala college)

One day due to her extra-ordinary driving skills the car had to go to the service station as the gears were not responding. So her dad dropped her in the college and asked her to call him up in the evening when work would get over so that he'd come n pick her up....(seemingly her dad doesnt trust ND autowalahs)...

After the classes were over, she came out to the parking lot and started searching for her car. She went berserk trying to imagine what happened to her car and of course the dirty looks she is going to face from the family. She started thinking of all possibilities like the car got stolen, or got towed away...

She knows that she is absent minded so she even went to check the neighboring college's parking lot. And after checking for a couple of hours with tears in her eyes, she returned to her college.

The guard at the gate who saw her condition offered to help. He searched with her the whole parking lot two more times.

And then he said. "beti tumhara car ka insurance to hoga... tum apna ghar phone karke batado aur FIR darj karwaalena...."

So expecting a lecture from her dad she called him up. And her dad said "Should I come and pick you up?"

Thats when she realized that her car was at the mechanic and that she had not driven down to college that day.

So she slunk out of the back gate..and used it for the next 3 months...

One one day the guard caught her and asked...beti aapki gaadi ka kya hua...??

She smiled and said nothing.

You would imagine she wouldn't repeat the same thing again.

But she did it again some time the following year.

I was speechless but still asked, "How could you not remember such a thing?". She answered, "I usually recollect stuff after a year has passed, but in the span of one year I usually forget."

This time I really was speechless....

Third time lucky??????

So.... the tooth needed to be attended to....
Let me check if I have a good dental plan....
It seems like I have a decent dental plan... so find a dentist in the area....
Dr.Moon, well if he is going to make me dance using his fingertips (albeit with a drill in hand), I might as well not make any fun of his name....or else....
In any case I never had a bad expeience with a dentist.... so i am hoping that what people say about dentists doesnt come true...

First Visit......

Dent:Where are you from? Whats your ethnicity?????

Me (wondering if I didn't look Indian) India......

Ahhhhhhhh.... you eat a lot of spices.... Do you eat spicy food...

Me (not knowing what to answer): I would not eat them from today if you don't want me to....

No no no... these spices make your teeth acidic.... thats why you have these stains.... I will give you a light cleaning first.

Me (thinking in my mind) Dude.... cleaning can wait.... get me out of the pain....
Me: Ok... as you wish.....

after some moments of buzzing drill and constant repositioning of my head.... cleaning was done....

Dent: Whats the problem now
Me: (thanking God) I have this toothache and I do not want to be in pain anymore....

Dent: lemme take some x-rays....

that guy took x-rays of every possible angle of all my teeth......

all this while his beautiful assistant standing in front of me... I had to wonder if she was hired strategically....

Dent: I have faxed your treatment plan to the Insurance office. I shud get a go ahead in about a day... But I know that root canal is covered. So we will do the rootcanal now.

Me: okay..... as you wish... just get me outta this pain....

Asst: I will give you the anesthesia.

The doc starts drilling and even the beautiful assistant couldnt divert me away from the pain..

It was baddddddddddddddd
I held his hand and said no I cant take it....

Dent to his Asst: Did you give anesthesia?????
Asst: Yes Dr. Moon

Dent: I think you tooth are acidic..... I dont think you are getting numb.... you should take antibiotics for a week and then may be we can try....

Me (wondering why antibiotics, Cant I eat baking soda or something to reduce acidity) Ok.

That evening I was in PAIN cuz he drilled a part of the nerve and it was pain personified....

So I called the office for some prescription. She had faxed it to the pharmacy and I got it. Much to my despair it was Ibuprofen and this whole ordeal took about an hour. I was like.... Cant we just buy these without a prescription in India.....

Anyway that subsided the pain and I was getting ready for my second visit.....

Second Visit:

Dent: Did you take the antibiotics?

Me: Yes.. all 21 of them.... I dont know what will happen to my stomach....

Dent: Ahhh you will be okay.... Lets finish what we started

After anesthesia he tried to drill and got a lot of it out....

Dent: 2 roots down, I will have to kill the last nerve......

He didnt even finish the sentence, I was in hell.... Now I know why they are called gatekeepers of hell..... And all this while I was thinking why people get so scared of a dentist....

The Dent gave up and said "ok.... we will try again next time

Dent: Did you drink last weekend heavily?
Me: Last weekend? I havent had a single drink in 15 days....
Dent: Do you have any liver problems????
Me (obviously worried): None that I know of....
Dent: Then the infection may be too big to get it numb, so we will try next week.
Me (even more worried): Ok

Now that he had put this thought in my mind, I had to find out if I had any symptoms of a liver problem or so.... I browsed for four hours and finally figured out that I dont have any symptoms

Third Visit...

early in the morning 7'o clock appointment (cuz I dont think that taking half a day off for yet another dentist appointment would stretch it at the office....)

Me: Dr. Moon, just curious... what is the max sittings have you taken for a root canal?

Dent: 2 and I have seen a case like you for the first time....

Me (frowning): Do you think I will be done this time.....

Dent: Yes, cuz I have already done it.... just need to do the filling.

May be they are not that bad. Then again.... he made me browse for 4 hrs last week to figure out why I wasnt getting numb.....

After he killed the roots... he put in artificial ones....

I was intrigued as usual and asked him about those....

He says, " Well in third world countries the treatment is cheap, so they dont use these artificial ones. They just clean the roots and leave it like that. This makes the tooth very weak.... and a chance of nerve growing back."

At this instant I was a bit hurt and obviously retorted, "Well, I have had another root canal done in the US and they haven't done it here either." But realized that I needn't be so harsh cuz he still can make me dance do his drilling buzz.....

But Yessssss I was third time lucky....


However before leaving the dentists office I did ask him one question... the one that I wanted to be answered bad...

How bad is smoking for teeth?

Smoking stains and thats it.... It has other health problems, but not for teeth... Don't drink cuz it hurts your teeth more than smoking....

Well I have one less reason to quit smoking.... but then again.... he started making me think about drinkin toooo.... :(


So may be my policy of not going to a doctor till it is absolutely necessary works for me after all... I think :p