In which my face is numb.
I’m revising my opinion of my new dentist’s office. They called me today and offered me a spot they had due to cancellation, and I went in at ten. The hygienist rocked; she cleaned half my mouth within an inch of its life.
That ultrasonic tool works really well, but I dislike it when it squeals in my eardrums and sinuses. It’s so strange, lying there in a chair with a total stranger touching my face – intimate because there are fingers on my jaw or lips, medical because of the latex gloves and the smell of disinfectant – while a science fiction sonata is played in strange, metallic overtones on the bones around my brain.
I got three shots of local. My lips are still numb, and my gums are beginning to ache. Doing call center work with half your mouth asleep is certainly a fun spin on an otherwise utterly unremarkable Wednesday.
The hygienist told me I was “excellent to work on.” And I totally am: I lie there with my mouth open and my eyes closed, and drift. I laughed a few times because my nerves weren’t telling me what they were supposed to: my tongue worked, but my lips felt swollen and weird. The hygienist worked for an hour and a half, scraping and ultrasonic-ing and digging and flossing. When she was done, she gave me a bag with dental goodies in it and told me to gargle with warm salt water.
My next appointment isn’t until February 2nd, but they said they’d call me if they get another cancellation. Yea verily, clean teeth shall be mine!
I can’t wait for the feeling to return to my lips, though.
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The hygienist told me I was “excellent to work on.†Is it only me that I think about something naughty when I read this specific sentence? anyway, yay for clean teeth 🙂 Do you sound different while your lips are still numb? good day
It’s only you, dear. 😉 -m
Glad you’re getting things taken care of orally *wink* and I concur with Shigeki as far as “Horray for clean teeth” Glad things are going well.
Dirty boy. -m
Feeling back to your lips? Didn’t realise you had drama down there too…
Dirty dirty! 😉 -m
where you at bee-atch?
Here! -m
I’m really glad to hear that your 2nd visit to the dentist was a productive and pleasant one. 🙂
It’s true what you say about it being a very intimate situation. I’ll never forget before I graduated, we had to pick a hospital to work in, to get experience before we graduated. I picked a well known mental institution in Toronto to do my internship.
The first patient I worked on was a woman and she told me my glove tasted like a condom. I had never even thought of that, you learn something new everyday!!!
They do taste like condoms! I’ve always thought so, at least. -m