New perspective

It took me most of a year to get around to calling the dentist my co-worker R suggested shortly after we moved here, mostly out of a lack of momentum. There's nothing wrong, so what's the rush? C's devotion to all things dental-hygiene got me moving eventually, though, and Liam really loved his turn as the center of attention in the big chair.

The dentist wanted to replace my (5-year-old) fillings, and that seemed like a fine plan. But. The tooth waaaaay in the back is not happy with the change. It's achy when I eat anything cold, and there's this amazing stabby pain if I chew with it. I called this morning, when I'd had enough, and went in at the end of the day. I got a good look at an x-ray, and the filling itself was solid, but it was kind of close to a nerve. The dentist thought she should take it out (which I was all for, because nothing that hurts like that can stay in my head), but when she did, she found out that it wasn't just close to a nerve - the nerve was exposed.

She poked it a couple of times, causing the weirdest feeling way down in my jaw, and when I made the eyes-bugged-out what was that? face, she got a mirror and started pointing things out to me. On the inside of my tooth. Which I didn't know had so much empty space in it, yikes. Apparently I would not make a good dentist.

So, to sum up:

• Irritated nerve in my tooth=bad
• New filling=hopefully a calmer nerve
• Otherwise=root canal
• My record of getting my money's worth out of dental insurance=unbroken