For years I have belonged to a secret club. You may be a member as well and perhaps are just not aware. There are several of us around. . . We are the people who had braces a long time ago and got a retainer cemented along the back of our bottom teeth and never got it removed. I think it is a scandal because they tell you to keep the thing in till you are 21, but who has money to get a retainer removed when they are 21? Here I am, nearly 26, still have the retainer.
I was a little nervous today as it was time for my first dental appointment since 2003. I wasn't so much nervous about the pain, or the potential cavities, but I was a little nervous that the dentist would want to remove my retainer. I never realized until today that I am kind of attached to it (not just physically but emotionally)! It would be so weird for it to not be there!
The appointment went well. I think I would do better at dental appointments if they would give me headphones to put on. The stuff they do doesn't really hurt, it just sounds like it should hurt, which triggers the same reaction in my brain. I think it would be good for me to stand and observe a regular check up. The vantage point you get being the patient isn't very good and so it leaves a lot to the imagination about what exactly they are doing. From my experience today the dentist first decided that she ought to etch her initials on the backside of all of my teeth with her little tiny hook thing. I don't know if she is afraid I won't be loyal or what, but she sure spent her time engraving my teeth. That is the thing that sounds the worst, I get the shivers just thinking back. Then her little assistant was a little gung-ho with the suction tool. Not only was my mouth bone dry, but I am pretty sure I won't have to go #1 for a week, and that is saying something for a pregnant woman. Then occasionally they would scrape my teeth with cottonballs (as if my mouth wasn't dry enough!), which I don't know-- did engraving her initials on my teeth make me bleed so bad that they went through like 12 cotton balls? Then they did an endurance test. On the questionaire they had me fill out at the beginning it asked if my teeth were sensitive to cold, which they aren't particularly so I answered "no". So after they sucked all the moisture out of my entire body and finished engraving my teeth they straight shot freezing cold water on all of them. I wanted to burst out, "okay, okay, I lied! My teeth are sensitive to cold, I should have told the truth, please stop!!".
Who knows what really went on at the dentist today, it was hard to tell since I could only see my nose and belly and I could only hear the scraping (make it stop!). However, I have done my duty and I don't have to go back for six months.
The good news is that she didn't say anything about the retainer. So, at least for the time being, I am still a complete person. A complete person that, like always, needs to focus more on being committed to daily flossing (don't worry, I am on the every other day plan-- it's not like I never floss, that's just gross).
6 comments:
I was in the club for a long long time. Then mine randomly fell out one day last year. I don't even think I was eating anything. I have definitely missed it--- because I never remember to wear the replacement retainer that you only put in at night...
Good luck keeping yours in!
I've got one too :) And actually, my Dad (who is a dentist) said you should keep it on forever. He had his taken out when he was in dental school and his teeth started moving again and he had to have braces again when I was in high school. So if some dentist tries to take it out, kick him kindly in the stomach and tell him to step away from his instruments.
Really? That is so interesting! I am definitely glad that I still have mine then. I wish they would have had them for top teeth because mine are going all berzerk again since I never wore my top retainer!
I have a removable top and bottom retainer that I'm supposed to wear one night a week (but I remember more like every other week) and I think I'll be wearing it pretty much until the day I die or until my teeth fall out in old age, whichever comes first! At least you don't have to remember...
On the misery of going to the dentist:
Remind me sometime to share with you the in-depth paradody I did in high school of Poe's "The Raven." It's all about the miseries of hygenists scraping your teeth and such.
But as much as I complain, I'm quite the dental hygene junkie... I LOVE the feeling AFTER I've been to the dentist
I'm in the club too. Except I never knew you were supposed to have it removed. I guess the orthodontist forgot to tell me that part.
Another club member here. So proud. I am very attached.
I do have to say again, Kristi, you are such a talented writed and you nail life on the head. You MUST write a column for a newspaper there in TX. SERIOUSLY! Please, oh please, go get a job. You should definitely get paid for this. Also, go check out Helium.com.
Post a Comment