One week today I woke up, scared and excited at the same time. Why? I had a dentist‘s appointment! You might be wondering whatever could be exciting about that, well, I’d never been before that day! My closest encounter with ‘teeth doctors’ was when my sister extracted one of hers a couple years ago. The pain, the swelling and especially the crushing of Panadol to assuage the discomfort made me intensify prayers about healthy teeth.
Those prayers were answered till earlier in the year when I noticed I had a hole in a tooth on the upper row. I didn’t tell anyone, matter of fact it became a favorite pastime to run over the spot with my tongue. No, it didn’t hurt, not at that time.
Fast forward to late October. I woke up one morning and felt like I had sand in my mouth. Nope I didn’t brush my teeth before going to bed, but neither did I eat sand, or any other thing for that matter, even in my dreams. Ladies and gentlemen, it was my tooth o! When it chipped later in the day I promised to register with a dental surgery. Did I? Your guess is as good as mine!
It dawned on me about two weeks ago that I would hate myself if I didn’t take care of the tooth now and then it started acting up during the holidays in Nigeria. Operation find a dentist started, the first couple ones said they had long waiting lists, to come in February (what??!!!), and to come as a private patient. God being merciful, I found one close enough to my house, and that’s how I found myself at my first ever appointment.
To start with, the dentist is cute!!! Whoop!! And he was so friendly (get your mind out of the gutter, thank you very much)! He was surprised though, when I said I’d never seen a dentist, and after exploring my mouth (lol), said, “you have excellent oral hygiene, I think you’re not telling me the truth about never seeing a dentist before now”. Whoop!!!
Anyways, so how did I get a hole? Apparently, and I don’t know if I should be embarrassed about this, but I had two holes (in two teeth) instead of one and they were there because those two were milk teeth that for some funny reason, didn’t fall out. When he said this in my mind I went, ‘what!!! When my mates have kids who are losing milk teeth already!’ The teeth beneath those two however are permanent and therefore stronger and so have been boring holes into them.
Solution? Fill the holes, see how long the fillings stay in, and from there decide if to file the permanent, or take out the milk! Appointment was set for yesterday, and I was on my way! (Did you notice my small, unconscious rhyme scheme there?)
Got there early enough yesterday, had 15 minutes to kill. Noticed a tattoo parlor just next door to the dentist’s. I want to get a tattoo of my name somewhere on my body. My two closest friends didn’t help much with choosing a spot (on time) and so I went in to see the cute dentist again. Lol…
My x-rays came back, no issues (whoop), and there wouldn’t be any drilling for the filling (rhyme again) because they were milk teeth and wouldn’t withstand it. Most interesting bit of the procedure was the dentist saying, ‘suction’ and then his assistant putting a tube like thing into my mouth; occurred to me after hearing it a couple times that this was the reason why my mouth wasn’t full of saliva. Made me smile too, felt like I was in the OR on the set of Grey’s Anatomy!! So that’s what ‘can I get more suction’ means!! Lol!!
He scaled and polished my teeth too, was done with all of this in just under 40 minutes. Would have taken a picture for you but all my attempts at flashing my teeth and looking dignified weren’t successful! I have however, decided to show off the ‘excellent oral hygiene’ branded teeth from a picture I took in October.
So that’s it, the story of my first (and second) trips to the dentist! Feels a little funny when I eat, and I kinda miss the spot I used to roll my tongue over. Had a dull ache for most of yesterday evening (and night, couldn’t sleep) but I’m perfect this morning.
What’s your story with your teeth?
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Fairy Godsister's Blog 
Never been to the dentist either. Never had an ache or anything like that, I have healthy teeth :D. But I’d love to polish my teeth some day though 🙂
Glad you’re fine now. So the permanent teeth underneath won’t grow some more? The milk teeth won’t eventually fall off??
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Hey Dez! Hopefully the filling stays in, and the teeth stop bothering me abeg! Even though when I was younger I wanted to have gap teeth….. Lol.
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I’ve never been to the Dentist’s. I have like four milk teeth yet to fall out. I haven’t grown mollars too. (In this my old age). *covers face* I have plenty issues with my teeth/dentition in general and I’m scared to go see ‘Teeth doctors’ (in your words). My dad has extracted like 12 teeth (And No, I’m not exaggerating!). That’s how bad it is!
Thank God for you though. I pray I get the courage to visit one soon.
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Oh wow!! Taken out twelve? Berry I would be scared! My momma has taken out two, my sister two as well…
You should see a dentist soon babe, so you don’t need end up needing dentures before you hit 30!
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i feel so ashamed, hearing u’ve never being to the dentist until this first time :(. Anyway, i happpen to be a regular customer *laughing*. Just recently i even had to fill up two holes *awww*.
So glad u r ok now, cos tooth ache is never a good experience.
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Don’t feel ashamed Lucia, funnily I felt like it was a bad thing that I haven’t been to the dentist’s till now!
Tell me about not being a good experience; I’m still trying to learn how to chew with the fillings in my teeth!
Thanks for stopping by!
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[…] entire flight though; it’s amazing how my entire life I’ve never needed a dentist but I’ve seen one in the last two weeks and all of a sudden my teeth are falling apart! It’s even more amazing […]
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Still a card carrying member of the never-been-to club…hehehehe…I would love to say perfect tooth medical history too but over 10years ago,my front tooth chipped in a fall,fastforward last year and then the tooth started aching me…pheew…excruciatingly o!…a dental student buddy said the protective enamel had worn off over the years by reason of exposure to varying temperatures of food substances.blah blah blah…
Let’s just say i’m better now(prayers work) and would gladly take a rain check for a dental appointment.
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It’s so annoying that I’ve gone once, and now it seems like I have a relationship with dentists! The filling has … I don’t know what to say has happened to it but it’s no longer there!
That automatically means I owe my dentist a visit… *sigh* before I lose my tongue in the hole! It’s so big! Even if I’ve been cracking rocks with the thing!
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