TheBanyanTree: Dentists

[JMoney]

There was a sore spot in my lower jaw.  I waited a while for it to go away
but it didn't.  In fact the spot got more and more localised indicating,
therefore, that something was brewing that required attention before it got
nasty.  I've had an apical abscess before.  The root canal work went on for
ages, didn't work and I finished up having to go into hospital to have a
general anaesthetic and apicectomy.

So off I went to the dentist - a nice fellow who considers all possible
causes of pain in the jaw region, like referred pain from tight neck muscles
in driven, obsessive people like myself; a man who doesn't recommend work
unless it's necessary and who never makes me feel like a bad person.  He
wasn't there.  I was sent in to see his assistant - a woman of about 30 who
looked and acted as though she was regretting her choice of career.

The X-rays she took showed periodontal disease affecting one of my molars.
First she indicated that I was a bad person  and then she offered me
antibiotics and a referral to a specialist.  "What will they do?" I asked.
And then she told me the most hideous, gruesome tale.

They will dig beneath your gum, expose the roots of your teeth and clean
everything thoroughly.  Afterwards you will have to floss - wait for it -
the space between the roots.  Good grief!  My toes curled.  My stomach
lurched.  I can't think of anything much worse (on a day to day basis) than
having such a gap between crown and gum exposed in my mouth and having to
poke floss through the hole to clean it out forever after.  But it's
probably appropriate punishment in her eyes.

Why on earth would I let anyone do that to me?  This is not the first time
I've had this problem with gum pockets and inflammation.  It's just the
first time someone has called it periodontal disease.  The last (and first)
time it happened the dentist called it a plain old ordinary gum boil.  He
gave me antibiotics, did some minor scraping around and everything was
fixed.  That was eight years ago.  I figure that once in eight years does
not fit the definition of a serious, recurrent problem requiring a drastic
remedy.  And anyway, I don't trust standard dental wisdom.  These are the
guys that recommended we all use hard toothbrushes when I was a kid.  Never
mind if hard toothbruses rip your gums to shreds and, on healing, they
shrink and predispose you to dreadful, socially unacceptable, periodontal
disease.

But being a "good girl" I made the appointment with the periodontal
specialist.  They're such busy fellows that the earliest I could get in was
three months away.  Then I started on the course of antibiotics and, what do
you know,  within a week my problem was solved.  So I cancelled the
appointment.  Now, six months later, using the same old oral hygiene
methods,  I have had no recurrence.  My gums remain unperforated and I
intend to keep them that way until they fall apart in the grave or get
burned up in the crematorium.  And next time I go to the dentist I will
refuse to see anyone but the nice fellow.

Janice