First Time for Everything

I've had a mild toothache lately. So I finally made a dentist appointment. This really bummed me out because, seriously, when do I run out of dental real estate to rot? For as long as I can remember, every time I go to the dentist I have x number of cavities. And then I have to spend hours in The Chair getting fillings and go around with a numb face all day. (And I've considered just saying "no" to drugs because they don't even work! I can always feel the drilling no matter how much more novicaine they shoot me up with. My face will be numb from here to Australia and I still feel that drill and end up digging holes in my palms with my fingernails.) I even had cavities in my baby teeth when I was a kid! I had some filled with I was around 8 or so and I remember that they gave me nitrous oxide of which I breathed too deeply and I thought I was in a flying saucer. The dentist and his assistant were triangle-faced aliens.

In spite of my propensity (genetic, I believe) to dental decay, I procrastinate making appointments (imagine that). So it's been over two years since my behind last warmed that chair. But last time, I had seven largish cavities (to the tune of $1,500!!!), including a matched pair of misery in my upper wisdom teeth which I still have despite many dentists telling me "they need to come out." (The one I'm going to now hasn't said that. He happily filled them and did quite well, too. He's a keeper, I guess). Those wisdom teeth are hard-won and I won't let them go easily, that's for sure!

After that last time, I vowed to be faithful to my cod liver oil (blended with high-vitamin butter oil for mineral activation). I even recently even started taking traditionally fermented cod liver oil. This is the one supplement that I make sure we all take every day (less in the summer, but faithfully in the winter). Cod liver oil and butter oil are supposed to be the magic combination for healing teeth and preventing tooth decay. I figure that it may be a spendy superfood, but if it keeps us out of the dentist's chair (not to mention numerous other health benefits), it'll be totally worth it!

And yet I have toothache. How frustrating.

So off to the dentist I went today, shaking and muttering in fear. Actually, I was also praying over and over, "Please, Lord, only a few cavities this time! Don't let it cost so much!"

The dentist poked and picked and tapped and tested the "vitality" of my teeth with this little electric-shocker tool (as I tried to prepare myself for the bad news) and then proceeded on to the "keep them clean, blah, blah, brush and floss twice a day, blah, make sure you come for a cleaning every six months, yadda yadda" speech.

"Wait a minute," I said, a bit breathlessly, "Are you saying I don't have any cavities?"






None.



No. Cavities.


I laughed and told him that was the first time in my life that I have ever heard that.

He laughed and congratualted me and then reminded me again about regular cleaning (which I've neglected for... uh... the last few years).

And then he didn't even charge me for the exam!!

Oh happy day!!! I told the receptionist that it was the best dentist visit I'd ever had! I think I had them all giggling with my exuberance.

The dentist thinks that my toothache is from my major jaw-clenching/TMJ dysfunction (and perhaps compounded by sinus problems). He filed down a high spot on a filling on the tooth that's been hurting as that may have been putting some pressure on the tooth and making it ache.


But I have NO cavities! God is good!

I wish I had put in a good word with the dentist about cod liver oil and the Weston A Price Foundation, though... I'd love to see the dentist recommend those things rather than cleaning and brushing (which I frankly doubt have any bearing at all on dental health). Maybe I'll send him a gift subscription...