Gabe's Trip to the Dentist

I like to subscribe to the wisdom that one should always assume the worst case scenario when going into something that makes you nervous. If you assume the worse, you’ll always be pleasantly surprised by the outcome and how it could’ve been worse. This helps me in dating where a common thought I have after the date is “well that was awkward, but at least I wasn’t catfished by some hairy dude from Milwaukee.”

I went to the dentist this week to get a checkup on a tooth that had been bothering me for a while. I assumed going into the dentist that I was going to get a filling, assuming the worst in hopes of being pleasantly surprised by my overreaction. Before checking on my teeth, I got to talking with the hygienist and we discussed the state of social life amid quarantine and how much each of us missed socializing with friends. The hygienist would go on to talk about how they gave up on social distancing a couple weeks back, now hanging out with friends regularly despite a global pandemic. I think that’s the number one worst thing to hear from the person who is putting their fingers in your mouth. That and maybe the sound of a toilet flushing.

After examining my problem tooth, the dentist came in and checked it out. Once he got a close look on my back tooth, he decided it was time for a filling. While the affected area wasn’t bad, we were all in mutual agreement that it was good to take care of the tooth before it got worse. Now, I’m 23-years-old and have never had a cavity before so, this was all foreign to me. I’m a hypochondriac when it comes to oral health, so I was happy my tooth was getting fixed. However, I was nervous as to what to expect. I had little time to react to the news because before I knew it, the dentist was applying the Novocain to my gums. I was expecting it to be administered via rubbing by finger, but to my surprise, the dentist pulls out this long needle. This thing looked straight out of a cartoon it was so long. That and the how the light from the overhead lamp caused a glare on the needle didn’t help to calm my nerves. To add insult to injury, the dentist slowly took his time to bring it closer and closer to my mouth. Its times like these I am thankful I don’t live in a region where earthquakes are frequent.

After the Novocain was applied the dentist left to see another patient while the hygienist and I waited for the drug to take effect. It was as this time I started to ask questions to the hygienist like “how long will the procedure take?” “Is it going to hurt?” “Should I be put under for this?” I don’t think the hygienist was used to answering these types of questions from an adult because usually when someone gets their first cavity, they are a kid and it’s easy to dumb things down. To the hygienist’s credit, they did a great job explaining the process to me in a way that wasn’t condescending or felt like they were talking down to someone. They even used sock puppets!

Soon, the Novocain had started to show its progress and my whole bottom right side of my jaw went numb. When I would talk, the words would come out mumbled. Everything I said sounded like I was speaking with a Southern accent or I was from Louisiana. The dentist came back, but this time he had a drill like tool. When he turned the drill on it sounded like a power tool used to break cement. You would think with all the technological advancements made throughout the years in the dental field, we would have found a way to give the tooth drill (I didn’t go to dental school so I don’t know the real name for it) a more pleasant sound. The dentist brought the drill closer and closer to my mouth. Unlike the syringe of Novocain, this was more intimating. Probably because it was a DRILL CUTTING INTO MY TOOTH. As the drill got closer and louder I had a voice in my head saying “don’t cry, not in front of the sock puppets.”

Before I knew it, the procedure was over. They told me it would take 15 minutes, but it only ended up taking 10. Also, the drill didn’t hurt at all due to the Novocain. The only thing that was annoying about the process was the side effects of the Novocain causing me to turn into a water fountain every time I went to get a drink of water. The lesson I learned from a tooth filling was sometimes things aren’t as bad as you make them out to be and to maybe lay off the caramel.

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I decided to do a shorter post this week because last week was a novel. If there's anything you'd like to see me write about let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading!