I Suck At Fillings

this morning, i paid a visit to my friendly neighborhood dentist. and by friendly neighborhood... i mean quincy. yes, i know... i do not live near quincy anymore. but, i grew up with my dentist in quincy and have thus continued going to him after moving to norwell... almost six years ago. in my defense, karen does the same thing... just with her dentist.

anyway, today's appointment was for a filling. too bad i suck at fillings. when i went for my routine six month cleaning, a cavity was discovered via x-ray. i thought i was cavity-free after the cleaning... until they took the x-rays. bummer. so needless to say, today was my filling day.

new at the dentist office waiting area is the peg board puzzle iq test. the peg board puzzle iq test is that triangular peg board that is filled with pins... with the exception of one hole. jumping over a pin allows you to remove a pin... and the goal is to remove as many pins as you can. i enjoy doing that puzzle... probably because i'm an idiot and can't figure it out.

unfortunately, i did not get to finish the puzzle as it was time for my filling. so there i sat, with my dentist and his assistant... mouth open... numbed from novacaine... the drill buzzing... smoke emanating from my mouth... a vacuum in my mouth... other tools being inserted and stuff. by the way, the smell of drilled teeth... is not that pleasant.

amazingly, my dentist was done in about twenty minutes. everything was quick and painless. i sometimes wonder what it would feel like to not have novacaine. i like my dentist.

when all was done, my dentist told me that the filling was very tiny and that i would probably not be able to see it because... 1) the filling was white and 2) the cavity was very tiny. i think he may have sanded part of my teeth down too.

anyway, when he asked if i wanted to rinse my mouth following the procedure, i said sure. so naturally i took the tiny cup of water that they gave me... and threw it in my mouth. well... let's just say all the water dribbled down the side of my mouth that had been numbed with novacaine. my dentist got a chuckle and told me that the novacaine takes some getting used too.

but at least i can still do a mean billy idol impersonation as i type this.