My trip to the dentist
Tuesday October 23, 2007
Categories: Decline and fall
Let me stipulate up front that I have a good dentist. Let me also stipulate that he no doubt took me on as a charity case. It's not that my teeth are super-bad or anything, though they could be better....
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Betraying a little prejudice, are we?
Hoping that was just an insensitive joke, the key to going to the dentist is to think about it rationally and scientifically to overcome your fears. Yes, it's painful, but the dentist isn't going to destroy your mouth and make you look like a freak (like the bad teeth you displayed in your picture).
I have very good teeth, and I've still had a root canal and two permanent crowns (actually four, including two temporary crowns that preceded the permanent crowns). Not fun, but not jump out of the chair phobia, either. The root canal, in fact, wasn't a tenth as bad as legend makes them out to be.
And these were with four different dentists, no less -- one of whom was extremely obnoxious -- and one surgery was immediately after a fairly serious accident that fortunately only (?) knocked out a front tooth.
And no, I would NEVER trade places with a woman giving birth. Bless their hearts and souls. There's a reason some radio DJ invented that cute (if obnoxious to the distaff gender) song, "Man, I'm Glad I'm a Man, Man" ...
Larry, I hate to disagree with you, but I've given birth three times and have four crowns, three of which required root canals.
I would MUCH rather have another child than another root canal, and here's why:
--you have nine months to prepare yourself psychologically for the pain
--you are offered FAR more powerful drugs to deal with the pain
--people are excited and happy for you
--your spouse is supposed to stay in the room with you and be supportive and helpful
--unlike a root canal, if the drugs aren't working they'll give you MORE drugs without waiting until they hit an un-numbed nerve and you leap out of the chair in so much pain that you're fairly sure a psychic imprint of the moment will convince later generations that the dentist's office is haunted
--when it's all over you have a new human being for your trouble, instead of a piece of nearly-worthless mouth jewelry that cost more than your wedding ring.
Rod, my deepest sympathies, and I've marked the 27th on my calendar as a reminder to ask St. Appolonia's intercession for you on that day.
--that should be St. Apollonia, of course. I never spell her name correctly.
I see you chose Dr. Bukk's "Incest" model; perhaps you could have "Dueling Banjos" playing on your iPod during your visit. Then there's the whole likelihood of "squealing like a pig..."
Seriously, I had my first crown put in about a year ago. First there was the temporary crown, which felt like sandpaper. Then, a week later, came the crown itself. I was able to endure the process, though I think the claw marks from where I gripped the arm rests on the chair won't be going away any time soon.
But another week later, the crown began to feel a bit odd. Then, really uncomfortable... I went back for a check, and the crown had broken in two! So another week of a temporary, followed by the whole thing all over again.
I'm thankful for good dental care, but I feel a profound need to avoid it as much as possible.
Betraying a little prejudice, are we?
Larry. Larry. Larry. Please tell me you have a sense of humor, somewhere. I love you, guy, but surely you have been around this blog long enough to know that I'm a big bulls**tter.
Oh my. Just reading this percolates my own fear and hatred of the dentist. I just nearly passed out.
Really.
If funds are a problem and/or you have an interesting or usable dental situation, Baylor Dental College at Gaston and Hall is the place to go. I've had an implant, fillings and crowns done by them, as well as regular cleanings. And crowns really aren't a bad experience.
My dentist is a great guy. It's me who's a bad patient.
Sorry Rod. I went through two root canals and 1 crown last summer. Event though I could only feel a tiny tiny sliver of any semblance of pain, that weird feeling of having your tooth ground away is uncomfortable in a way that's almost worse than pain.
I'm so sorry, Rod. I've had a couple of crowns. The dentist numbs you up real good, and it's not painful. But the expectation of pain as the dentist drills and drills is something that I can barely stand. I don't even mind dentists. I like going to the dentist for routine cleanings.
I've delivered one single baby followed by twins. I'd do just about anything before natural childbirth again. I had an epidural for the twins. It was really, truly, a piece of cake. Birthing babies with an epidural beats having a crown placed.
Go for the hard stuff. Get the maximum dose of valium(or something similar) that your physician will prescribe. Don't be afraid to be a big baby. Get as much pharmaceutical aid as you can. Maybe try hypnotism & relaxation techniques taught in prenatal classes before Dec 29.
That was not kind of you, Rod, as it reminded me that I'm overdue for a dental appointment! (cringe cringe) When my brother and I were little, we did not get dental care until there was an actual hole in a tooth that could be felt with the tongue and that caused pain too severe to be numbed by sucking on a clove--the home remedy. Then we went to a dentist who believed that small children did not feel pain, and hence that anaesthesia was not necessary. If we cried, he would bark, "Shut up, you little brat!" Yes, really. But he did give us little cheap plaster animals afterwards. We'd line them up on our shelves at home--sort of like Purple Hearts.
This didn't seem odd to our parents, I guess, because my father could remember having his teeth drilled on the back porch of the dentist's house, with a hand-cranked drill, and then staggering home still bleeding.
It was quite a revelation to me to find out, as an adult, that yes, you can get insurance with dental coverage, and that there are many kind, calm, professional dentists who can keep your teeth healthy without causing agony. I still feel a lot of fear when I have to go there, though. Perhaps we should chalk dental care (or the lack thereof) up as one more item that wasn't all that great and wonderful in the Eden of the 50s.
In any case, you have my most sincere sympathy! Watsy's right--go for the drugs! Maybe they'd give you one of those Fentanyl lollipops they save for the little kids. : P
Stand up to that unnamed person, Rod, the one who telling you that it can't be as bad as giving birth. I have no doubt that giving birth can be agonizing, but some years ago I received a gift from God that freed me from that motherly one-upmanship.
I had major back problems at one time, with sometimes excruciating pain, and always felt like my wife had her doubts as to whether it really hurt as much as I said it did, and certainly not as much as childbirth. Then one fine day I met a woman who had experienced both--herniated disk and other back problems, and relatively unmedicated childbirth.
She said the back pain was worse. Stand fast. Don't let nobody take your whine away.
More productively: when I'm facing any somewhat scary pain, I think of some specific person for whom I want to offer it up, and try hard to concentrate on that intention. A side effect of that is that the pain is more bearable, if only because the fear is displaced a little. Even imperfect love casteth out a little fear.
Rod:
You could fool me that you love me.
As for you-know-what, I'm not into that kind of humor. (Us priggish killjoy politically correct liberals usually aren't -- or maybe it's just from my paternal grandfather using the N-word every second or third word for most of his life.) But anyway ... I hope all goes/went well with the dentist.
Erin:
Any chance the dentist could have given you an epidural? ;-P
(I can believe horrible back pain can be as bad as childbirth -- at least a straightforward birth with no complications -- but I still can't believe a root canal is, sorry ...)
There are so many horrible stories about childbirth in internet (sometimes with pictures), i imagine it the same as deleting nerves from all teeth without anesthetization which lasts for many hours. Horrible pains and rivers of blood. It is very sad that women are damned to have children that way :(
If i ever get pregnant i think i would be in panic and demand all possible drugs, if there would be no epidural i would demand to hit head with a hammer, guess that would be better.
Once asked a dentist not to do anesthetizia to check how tolerable would be the pain and (dentist warned that the drill might reach the main nerve), and it really reached, that was a torture but it doesn't last for long -- as soon as drilling is over the pain is over too, besides any time you can kick the doctor and he will stop, or make a break. And at the end you can feel like a hero and boast -- i m so cool i have teeth drilled without drugs:) what on earth to be afraid after that, besides childbirth?
And also anesthezia costs like a bottle of high quality vodka (wine) and a big box of chocolates, that might be a little feast to reward the pain. But still i would prefere drugs.
Well, Marla, I don't usually talk about my experience, because nothing seems to get women more riled up than hearing about someone else whose birth experience wasn't the same as theirs . . . but don't freak out too soon. I had four children, natural childbirth all the way, BOOYAH. The first time around it was darn scary, because I had no idea what to expect, and the hospital wasn't really used to dealing with people who didn't want to be knocked out. Still, it only took about four or five hours, start to finish, which is not too bad. I studied the Lamaze method, which is a good place to start, but I found that just knowing how to breathe well and understanding what was happening in my body was the main thing. I highly, highly recommend the book Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin. (I think it's been re-published under a slightly different title, but if you google it you'll find it.) It's the old hippie's guide to a good birth, covers everything medical in terms you can understand, and is the only book I've ever read about childbirth that makes it sound like anything you might want to do.
Larry is right, though, really. The "pain" of childbirth is not comparable to anything else. On the one hand, yes, it produces a wondrous result. On the other hand, the whole process, while natural, can naturally go badly wrong and you can end up really messed up. Unlike a root canal, which very seldom has any effect on your body once you step out of the office.
Fear is the enemy, I think. Pain can be controled with drugs, and discomfort in pursuit of dental health is just something you have to man up and sit through quietly. Breathe deeply, concentrate on something pleasant, and when pain and fear intrude, use your God-given mind to reassure yourself that it's not dangerous and it will end.
Mrs Pringle
C'mon, Larry. It sure looked to me like our Working Boy was making fun of himself.
Rod's dealing with a phobia. My son had a phobia of choking once after he witnessed his dad choking. He wouldn't eat anything but ice cream for about 3 months. He lost 10-15 pounds of weight.
My point is that we can only compare this experience of having a root canal with childbirth if we compare the experience in terms of having a phobia in relation to it. If Rod could make his fear go away by simply being rational about it, then this event wouldn't be traumatic for him. Which is worse? Going through childbirth or needing to have a procedure that you really truly are phobic about? After witnessing my son's reaction when he had to do something(eating) that he feared in a phobic(irrational) sort of way, I'll place my vote with the crown. Drilling is no fun when you can use all of your reasoning abilities to get through it. I give Rod credit for having the procedure done at all considering that he's phobic about it.
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