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Entry tags:
Dentist
I have an appointment at 6 PM tomorrow night for my regular biannual dental cleaning. I am very slightly nervous about it.
Why nervous? Well, if you're new here, I have a dental phobia. I've worked on it a lot, and with the help of several techniques plus nitrous oxide in the dentist's chair I've taken much of the edge off of my fear.
But why am I only very slightly nervous? Because I haven't had a problem in several years. Each time I go into the cleaning expecting a root canal, and each time things have been fine. So each time the fear becomes a little less.
What's more, this has been the best six months I've ever had, dentally speaking. In the past I've had twinges of pain in my molars, probably caused by sinus problems or possibly TMJ. But for the past six months, I've had no problems at all, no pains that I can remember...nothing.
Okay, part of my brain notes that it would be ironic and therefore quite in keeping with my life for my first totally pain- and fear-free six months to presage massive, painful root canals. But oddly enough, the rest of my brain isn't buying it. I simply can't panic, and that's a weird feeling. It's like a long-term wound that has healed almost completely; I can tell there's still a little sensitivity there, but it's so slight that it's the relative lack of sensation that feels out of place.
Or, as Alfred Bester once wrote, "If you live with one jeeze big tumor long enough, you miss him when he is cut out."
Why nervous? Well, if you're new here, I have a dental phobia. I've worked on it a lot, and with the help of several techniques plus nitrous oxide in the dentist's chair I've taken much of the edge off of my fear.
But why am I only very slightly nervous? Because I haven't had a problem in several years. Each time I go into the cleaning expecting a root canal, and each time things have been fine. So each time the fear becomes a little less.
What's more, this has been the best six months I've ever had, dentally speaking. In the past I've had twinges of pain in my molars, probably caused by sinus problems or possibly TMJ. But for the past six months, I've had no problems at all, no pains that I can remember...nothing.
Okay, part of my brain notes that it would be ironic and therefore quite in keeping with my life for my first totally pain- and fear-free six months to presage massive, painful root canals. But oddly enough, the rest of my brain isn't buying it. I simply can't panic, and that's a weird feeling. It's like a long-term wound that has healed almost completely; I can tell there's still a little sensitivity there, but it's so slight that it's the relative lack of sensation that feels out of place.
Or, as Alfred Bester once wrote, "If you live with one jeeze big tumor long enough, you miss him when he is cut out."