A trip to the dentist

Evo

I went to the dentist yesterday. He had a new assistant - apparently HELL has a school for dental assistants now.

This minion of the devil, cleverly disguised in a blue lab coat and vinyl gloves appeared normal at first...then she started "assisting" my dentist.

It was unbelievable, she kept ramming the suction wand into various parts of my mouth, I actually let out a scream at one point, so she stopped and asked "oh, is that tooth sensitive", I said "no, you just rammed that thing into my jaw again".

She would get distracted and forget to suction and I would be drowning, then she'd start spraying water all over my face.

I had a "a natural enamel" build up to fix a chipped tooth, and they have this neat little wand that emits a blue light and it hardens the enamel instantly. Well, she did something wrong and when she went to pull the wand out of my mouth, it was stuck to my tooth. She kept yanking and going "oh my, that's not supposed to happen". I was thinking "oh dear lord, I have a dental machine glued to my mouth". Finally after a number of twists and pulls she got it loose.

A few hours after I got home last night, I chipped the new enamel.

I'm afraid to go back.

Danger

First, she probably weakened or broke it pulling the UV emitter free. Secondly, don't you have the standard 200,000-bite warrantee?

zoobyshoe

I don't know it it's worse to be tortured by intentionally sadistic dentists ("Is it safe?"), or by the scatterbrained, incompetent ones ("Oh! That wasn't supposed to happen!").

Echo 6 Sierra

Poor Evo. (pats her hand and shows pouty lips) I had two wisdom teeth taken out in bootcamp. Ahhhhh...I can still feel the mallet-blows that cracked my tooth so it could be removed...and the rasp used to grind down my jaw(gum?)bone...and the MOTRIN!!!!!! for pain medication! I guess that was my first military lesson on dealing with pain. Makes my teeth sharp just thinking about the rasp.

Evo

Aaaggh!!! No wonder so many people died of abscessed teeth in the old days.

Huckleberry

I had a tooth that the dentist didn't want to fill last month. He used that enamel stuff. Isn't that stuff awesome? He was explaining how the blue light cured the enamel. I think I distracted him too much because he told me to rinse and I still had a mouthful of gauze. He was so embarrassed you'd have thought he left some forceps in my intestines or something.

Tsu

Jeepers, Sis!!! You just NEVER cease to amaze me!! How do you manage to find these people??? ...'Course you always HAVE been sort of a weirdo magnet... Mom and I would just shake our heads and laugh... And honest to God, your description was...PERFECT! I was picturing the WHOLE THING!! Ahhhh...{wipes tears from eyes} ...thanks for the laugh, Sis. I needed that...

So, how's the tooth? Here. Have a green apple martini {pours a double into Evo's computer - hey! maybe the alcohol will help to evaporate all the rest of the liquids you've been spewing into it lately!! }.

Huckleberry

I had almost this same experience. I guess military dentists don't like to put people under. I only had some novacaine for pain killer. He put a ball in my mouth and cut open the gums and cracked the teeth and wrenched them out. My mouth was killing me. I thought he broke my jaw. I didn't have that rasp thing though, thank God. I don't even want to know what that is like.

Evo

With all the modern technology, why is it they haven't found a way to muffle that high pitched whine of the drill? It's like someone dragging their fingernails on a chalk board.

enigma

Now?

Since the renaissance, he's been having problems finding people to believe in him. Dental School is one of the few places he can still train his minions without being immediately picketed by the religious right...

Danger

My dental hygienist is a very attractive young lady, who is unfortunately my dentist's daughter. Even more disappointing, they're both very religious. What a revoltin' situation.

Evo

I'm a freak magnet.

It's chipped.

Mmmmm, I needed that! It's hard not to spew when you read posts from Danger, Huck, Artman, zobie (as Ivan called him once) moonbear, brewnog, MIH, etc...

I remember when I first joined and you had me spewing and spitting all over the place!!!

Moonbear

I think they all trained at the UofM school of Dentistry. I honestly ask dentists now where they went to school, and if they tell me UofM, I'm finding another one. I never was afraid of dentists and never ran into a bad one until I moved to MI, and suddenly, they were ALL bad.

I needed my wisdom teeth out when I was living there, and had already had enough bad experiences, I honestly got a referral from a friend for an oral surgeon in NJ and paid through the nose (insurance didn't cover anything to go to him) just to be sure I wasn't having the wisdom teeth removed by anyone in MI. I got all 4 done at once, and other than my jaw muscles being a bit sore from having my mouth stretched open, it really didn't hurt much at all (yeah, I did have a "twilight" anesthetic during the tooth removal because two were still under the gums and I knew they'd have to cut the gum to get at them and opted for a bit more than just novocaine).

Evo, if I were you, I would tell the dentist about the assistant having the light wand stuck to your tooth and then explain that your tooth chipped again the same night (whether it was her fault or not, blame it on her so they fix it for you free...it's the least they owe you after her torture)...and yeah, tell him/her you want your appointment for the day that assistant is off!

Danger

You called...?

It's nice to know that the effort hasn't been wasted.

PS: to Tsu; love the new avatar. It shows off your colouration so much better than the old one.

Evo

I think her days are numbered. He's a very patient guy but the entire time he was saying, "no, not that, the other one", no, I need "xxx", that's an "eee". I don't think she did one thing correct. He wasn't in the room when she glued the wand to my tooth, I do need to bring that up.

Huckleberry

At my appointment the dentist himself applied the enamel and cured it with the light. The stuff is like concrete. Once it is cured to change the shape the dentist has to use the drill. I don't want an assistant to do that unassisted.

Danger

Well of course not. An unassisted assistant is unheard of. She would need at least one assistant assistant.