I know this sounds petty and ridiculous but I missed sleep again last night worrying about my tooth. I think I might need to go to the dentist.
Last week a piece of a filling or something, fell out of my tooth and I can feel a tiny little hole with my tongue on the bottom left somewhere.
My worst nightmare has come to fruition.
I don’t go to the dentist. I refuse. I’m not bragging. As a kid and teenager I despised being dragged to the dentist. The sounds, the smells, the taste of everything. It shook me to my core. And right before I turned eighteen I vowed that once I was an adult, there’d be no more dental torture for me.
Now I know what you’re thinking, ewww. But I promise, my mouth is clean and mostly smells good and my teeth have had no problems. A dentist told me when I was young that I had really strong teeth and if I took good care of them, they’d last me forever.
I’m now forty-eight so I think in the last thirty years I’ve been to the dentist once or twice. The last time was about ten years ago. I had a sore tooth I couldn’t ignore any longer and needed a filling. Somehow I survived.
There have been other times where I feel a tooth or gum area getting sore but all I do is pay special attention to that area and really brush the crap out of it for a few days and it goes away. Honest to god.
But this time, there’s a hole. As of right now, as I’m sitting here, it’s not bothering me and not painful. I can eat anything, drink anything and it doesn’t hurt.
But I worry about next month when I go on vacation. What if it starts getting sore or gets infected while I’m on my holiday. I really don’t want my oceanside getaway with the kids ruined by a toothache.
But then again, why fix something not broken? I mean, I guess it is kind of broken but it’s not bothering me right now.
Last night when I was laying awake I was thinking of the things I might say to the dentist, without sounding rude or difficult. I think I’d want him to just pull it. Just get it out of there. I’m okay with one less tooth, no biggie right?
I really can’t stand the thought of lining his pocketbook just because he tells me I need a root canal. I’ve had friends have root canals and they are thousands-ish of dollars. And I honestly think that dentists are evil doctors who just want to get rich off of root canals.
They are the experts in something lay people know nothing about and so they say, yes you need six root canals, to six different people that day and bam, within a week they’re building a guest cottage at their multi-million dollar lakeside estate. And people won’t argue or refuse! They just do what the evil dentist says!
I refuse to be an investor in it.
Ughhh but at the same time I know there’s a correlation between dental health and heart health and I read just the other day that the bacteria found in mouths was the same bacteria found in brains of people with dementia. Or something like that.
I don’t want to up my risk of heart disease or dementia. But I also don’t want to be a frequent flyer at the dentist.
I’m not sure what to do.
Unfortunately I have passed this dentist phobia on to my kids. Well, except for Sid. Yet.
And yes I do have dental coverage through my employer, not sure how much though as I’ve never accessed it.
And I don’t know how to politely tell the dentist that no, count me out as an investor into your lavish millionaire lifestyle. He’ll think I’m insane if I say “I know what you’re up to.”
I’m kind of kidding but kind of not.
If you’re still reading this nonsense don’t worry, I’ll keep you abreast of what happens. Do I invest or do I not? Or maybe just wait until there is pain and it’s so excruciating I have no choice? That sounds more like me.
bloom.planted.north 
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