Rant #1,385: Going Through the Drill

After nearly 58 years on this earth, I have come to the following conclusion:

Of all the doctors that I have to go to for one thing or another, the one I hate to go to the most is ...

Drum roll please ...

The dentist.

Does anyone actually like to go to the dentist?

Yes, we need our teeth checked. Oral hygiene is very important for our state of being, our state of mind, and our state of health.

But going to the dentist is a real chore, because whatever they do, I know it is going to be uncomfortable, hopefully just when they are working on me but possibly afterwards too.

My teeth were a mess as a kid, growing in every which way, and I need to wear braces for several years to straighten everything out.

As an adult, I went literally decades without having much of a problem with my teeth--maybe a cavity here and there, but literally, I probably went about 30 years with no headaches--or toothaches--related to my teeth.

Since I was in my late 40s, I have had nothing but problems, and a lot of it doesn't have to do with me, I feel, but it does have to do with the dentists I have used.

I had a very fine, and a very old school, dentist when I was growing up. He fixed my teeth while he ranted and railed and raved at me for not taking care of my teeth. He actually was my mother's dentist as a child, so he knew me pretty well, and he put things into my mouth to last a lifetime.

And when he died, and I went to other dentists, they literally did last me a lifetime--until other dentists thought that they needed to be removed and replaced with newer replacements, if you will.

Since then, my mouth has felt like it is falling apart.

Yes, a lot of it has to do with age, but I have since, over about the past 10 years, had a variety of dental maladies including broken teeth, broken crowns, broken fillings ... you name it, I have broken it.

Just last night, after a long and hard day at work, I had to go in to get not only a crown replaced, but to have a filling replaced.

My mouth felt uncomfortable after the work was done last night, and I couldn't eat until late.

This morning, my mouth still feels a bit uncomfortable, and I am still trying to figure out what side to eat on, or at least eat on the most. I have gone back and forth, and one side feels just as badly as the other, so I guess I am going to have to give it some time to settle in my mouth.

I absolutely hate going to the dentist--as a kid, I was so nervous that before going to my mom's old doctor, I went somewhere else, where I was literally told to go somewhere else by the dentist because he could not handle me--and I still do.

They are all nice, but why, really, does one choose to be a dentist from all the other medical areas one can choose from?

The bottom line is to help people, I know that, but why be a dentist? Why not be a proctologist?

I have no idea what the thought processes are, but I guess I have to look at them as a necessary evil, even though they aren't really evil at all.

Just like death and paying taxes, one guarantee is that you are going to have to go to the dentist, and I am happy that I am done with that, at least for right now.

However, this weekend, my son has to go to the dentist, and guess who will be taking him there?

I really feel for my son, but I have been there and done that, and I guess it's now his turn.

Good luck! I hope they find nothing but a good set of choppers in that mouth of his.