A Day in the Life of a Dental Patient

So I had my big appointment today. As odd as this may sound, I haven't been to the dentist for a cleaning since I lived in Ohio. I had not established any doctors up in my new homeland until now. I figured I might as well go all out, since I now am proud to say I have a Michigan Driver's license! It's official! So I made myself a couple appointments for things I'd been procrastinating on, and one was of course the teeth cleaning. Today they called me first thing and told me there had been a cancellation and I could be seen today at 3:45. So I took it, and bravely went in to establish good dental health. I walk in and it's a very small office, from the outside it almost looks like a house, so this made me a teensy bit nervous, I wasn't sure if I was going to some back alley dentist or what. But I found him to be quite legit, and so began the process of xraying and cleaning my teeth. They did a wonderful job and the staff was the most friendly dental folks I've ever met. So do you want the good news or the not so good news? Hmmmmm? Okay good first. The good news is two fold. One is that my xrays came back with no new cavities. Yay I've been a brushin fool and it's paid off! The other good news is that the price was lower than what they'd quoted me over the phone! Double yay! The not so good news is...... I have a very small mouth that is very over crowded. I have an impacted wisdom tooth that will need removed :( Booooooooo! And then there's the more costly news. I need braces. No I mean I NEED braces. See I should have had braces when I was little, I've always hated my teeth because some are in front of others and my smile just looks like one hot mess. Well my parents could never afford this, they were doing good to cover the basics, and braces wasn't on that list. So being that my teeth are so crowded and therefore hard to clean and floss in some spots, it's a matter of dental health at this point. I either get this taken care of NOW and suffer with metal mouth at 32, OR in the next 10 or so years, I will need some removed, temporaries put in, and eventually, falsies. The idea of that horrifies me. I have a small mouth and falsies, even properly fitted ones, would still be quite distinct in my mouth and change the whole shape of my pretty petite pucker. So they referred me to an orthodontist. Oh my. How will I break this to James? So as I leave the dentists, the load me down with toothbrushes (and oh you'll just LOVE this! Since my pucker is petite, they gave me a toddler Power Rangers brush!! That one's to reach the back teeth, and they gave me a youth brush to do the rest, and plenty of Sensodyne and flossing tape). So there I am, arms loaded with dental supplies and pamphlets about my new Orthodontist. I drive home, wondering all the way home if I should just wait or go for it, how to bring it up to James (because this is a very big expense AND he's already done so much for me and for our family....my stomach was in knots). So I get home and go looking for him, still struggling to hold a bulk supply of toddler brushes and dental tape, when I hear a chain saw. Hmmmm that's interesting. Then as I walk through the garage, there it is. He chopped down a tree. Yes you read right. He chopped down a huge tree in our backyard. Now before you gasp, he's done this before, but never in our yard, so I wasn't as shocked, I knew he knew HOW to cut a tree down, but just didn't quite know this was on his to-do list today. We'd been talking about getting rid of some of the trees closer to the house for safety reasons, ant reasons and to let more light into the house. So there ya have it folks, there was my husband, the lumberjack, in full lumberjack gear, safety glasses, weilding a chain saw cutting up branches. This was the tree I most hated, because it had, of all things, a street light wired into it. Yes, you also read THAT right. The previous owners, or the owners before them, or some random ninny, decided it would be a great idea to get a huge honkin street light and wire it up the tree. You can imagine how pretty that looked. And my how functional too! So I was rather glad that he chopped that sucker down. I was kind of amused at the whole scene, walking up on it. But I digress. So I waved and flapped my floss around until it caught his eye and he shut off the chain saw. He came over, we chit chatted about dinner, but I did not tell him just yet what the dentist recommended. Why was I so afraid? What would he do say "NOOOOOOO! Absolutely under no circumstances are you getting braces! I want my wife to have dentures and look like Mr. Ed!" So I came inside and put away my dental paraphenalia and loved on my Hailey while she admired my brighter smile. She said "Mommy you're teeth are pretty!" Awwwwwww. So later, not much but a little, i went out to bother him again. I made him sit down and told him exactly what the Dentist said, and told him if we couldn't, or if we need to wait, that would be fine too. He said, exactly, word for word, "Do whatever you need, this is your health honey". Awwwwwwwwwwww. Two ooey gooey gushy moments back to back. First of all, I had wanted braces desperately growing up but, as I stated before, it just wasn't in the cards. I just gave up on that dream, because now I'm in my 30's and we have bigger and more important things to spend money on, like our kids teeth! So I explained that the Ortho will let us do payments, and again, he told me to go for it. So a part of me is excited about the prospect of having that smile I've always dreamed of. And a part of is nervous about the discomfort and length of time they will need to be on. The dentist thinks 2-3 years. My son will be in highschool, and there will be metal mouth (that's me) in the stands cheering for him, at least he'll be able to see me, as the light reflects off of the shiney metal protruding from my mouth. But hey, who knows, maybe my son and I will have braces together. People mistake us for brother and sister frequently anyways. We can mess with them and say we're twins. LOL I am just so thankful. I never thought my smile would get better. My family (mother, father, siblings) all had poor dental health, so growing up, I just figured this would be my fate someday too. But not so! Although I am nervous about this sudden change, I am excited too. Not only will it ensure good dental health and longevity for my pretty pucker, BUT I will one day have straight even teeth. To those of you without a crooked tooth in your head, you may read this and think I'm a loon. And that's okay, just thank you're lucky stars you were born with a bigger mouth and straighter teeth. Because never having that has deeply effected my self confidence and esteem. But no more poor me's, because when it's all said and done, you'll never get me to stop smiling! My new hero......Joan Cusack