Sunday, March 8, 2009

Damn teeth


The pictures are of my new hair cut. What do you all think? This is the first time I've ever let them put layers in my hair because I've always had an irrational hatred for them. They also put hi lites and lo lites so that when I can't get back to upkeep my new color, my natural hair color isn't too far off. And off to my post.....................

When I was pregnant with Devin, my wisdom teeth began to bother me. I didn't know what it was, I just knew that my mouth and jaw were killing me until I saw the crown of the tooth coming through my gum on the one side. I tried to ignore it and they stopped bothering me after he was born. Then it started all over again when I got pregnant with nuby. I went to a dentist which turned out to be a nightmare. Since I was on Medicaid, you can only go to the crazy dentists...let me give you a visual

I walk into the office, sign in and have a seat in the waiting room. It is completely cluttered and full of beautiful African art. There are sculptures on the tables and pictures of black women and children on the walls. The floors which are already carpeted have zebra print rugs in random places.

So, I'm sitting in the waiting room looking around and waiting for Dr. Dentist. I finally get called back after waiting for 45 minutes and I was the only patient in the building. This was only the beginning. The nurse leads me back to a little room and puts me in the chair. I tell her about my teeth and she sets me up for x-rays while I'm asking her if this is ok because I'm 6 weeks pregnant. She assures me that it's fine. They cover my body with a giant metal blanket thing and proceed to take like 20 x-rays of my mouth while stuffing different little plastic things all around in there jabbing my gums, my tongue and making me gag every couple seconds. Fun fun fun.

We finish up the x-rays and now I am just sitting in the little chair in my laid back chair waiting for Dr. Dentist. This is when I have a chance to soak in the decor. The room has not 1, not 2, not even three...but four random lava lamps hanging out in there. And they were all on too. They were also three random digital alarm clocks...all on too. It looked as if they were just making stacks of random junk all over the little room. Stacks of papers lined the counter and boxes filled with more junk were under the counter. No problem, I thought. Everyone does spring cleaning...right? Maybe I caught him in the middle of a remodel?

Then...in walks Dr. Dentist. Not the older African art loving black man that I had envisioned. But, a homely looking little white man who had a hump in his back. He shuffled along wearing slip on shoes that were too big making them slide across the floor as he walked. His pants were a dark brown cordaroy and were covered with white paint spots. The pants were cinched up with a belt as they were also way too big.

So, Mr. Dentist proceeds with his dentistry duties. He gets his little pick thingy and his mirror thingy and starts jabbing and stabbing my gums in the back. Maybe he hoped that by jabbing at them repeatedly it would tenderize my gums to make it easier for them to come through. heh...didn't work. After jabbing, muttering and breathing in my face for what seemed like an eternity, he leaves the room to go check out my x-rays. While he was gone, I pick up the torture instruments only to notice that they are covered with rust! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh....somebody get me out of here!

He comes back and tells me that he is scheduling me for surgery to get all four of my wisdom teeth removed and gives me a prescription for Tylenol 3. I ask him if it is safe for me to be put under for surgery and to take the meds. He assures me it's fine. I tell him that I will call back to schedule to surgery after I talk to my midwife.

I go home call my midwife and they tell me not to schedule or take the meds unless my face might explode at any second. So, lo and behold here I am with all four of my wisdom teeth still in there. One is almost all the way through now.

But, for the last three days, they have been killing me. My head has been pounding, my ears hurt and my jaw is throbbing. So, now that I have dental coverage through my work, I am going to see about getting them suckers yanked out.




19 comments:

  1. Love the new look. I have all of my wisdom teeth out. I hope you can get them out too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Like i have said before... love your hair! And you need to get those puppies yanked! I will be here to help with the kids as much as you neeed!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your hair looks very nice and I like the shirt too! Make sure you shop around for a nice modestly decorated office, you never know who you will get again!! Have Fun!! :) :)

    Katie

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a nightmare!!! Hope you find a better dentist, and can get them pulled with no problems! Have a great Monday! Visiting from SITS.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love your hair. It looks great! Scary dentist story.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I use to work for a Medicaid dentist except he was a fat white man with a strange thing for the color pink (floor, walls, counters, chairs all pink).
    Good luck with getting your teeth pulled, it's not really as bad as most people say it is!

    ReplyDelete
  7. No, it's not as bad as people say. I've had three of mine pulled out right after I had my daughter. It hurts a bit the first couple of days, but you get over it. I didn't even drool! I was so proud.

    ReplyDelete
  8. First of all, thank you for entering my giveaway! Second, it's nice to meet you and I love your layers. Third, I had my wisdom teeth out with my last pregnancy. They could not put me under. But, they did give me Ibuprofen 800 mg. I also took percoct for the pain. My dentinst said it would be okay and so did my midwife and the pharmacist. But putting me under anesthesia would not be safe. So I endured the surgery wide awake and it was one of the worst experiences of my life! That said, if your wisdom teeth are hurting you this bad it's best to get it taken care of now instead of when you have a baby! But, I would probably choose a different dentist!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Didn't see your hair cut before, so I'll just have to go with the other lemmings and say "yeah s'good".

    Re: your teeth...OMG. That is why I take 10 years to get to a dentist.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Looks like a good haricut:)

    That is a scary story about the dentist. Rust!?

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. I will let you know if you win.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love your hair. I got two out of four of my wisdom teeth pulled & it wasn't bad at all. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I was so scared to have my wisdom teeth pulled but i got all 4 of them out at once and it really wasn't that bad. I was swollen for a few days after but it wasn't the life-threatening procedure that i thought it would be. Hehe......

    Thanks for stopping by my blog yesterday!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love the hair cut! I'm keeping my wisdom teeth until I just cant take it anymore. so far, so good.

    Thanks for your comment the other day on the Global Food Crisis post. We reached 127 comments!

    ReplyDelete
  14. How scary! Eeeek! I'm glad you are able to PICK your dentist this time around. It makes all the difference!

    Your hair looks great too!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jump on over to my blog... I have an award for you!

    ReplyDelete
  16. i think your hair looks great! i got my wisdom teeth out when i was 18. i remember when my dad got them out when he was in his late 30s early 40s and the pain he was in. i figured the younger i was the quicker id bounce back!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Heu Jen, lomg time no see! Love the hair! You better have those teeth out, I had mine out January 2008, because of the headaches and jaw throbbing, I won't torture you with imagary about how it went, suffice to say Mr. Doc, was a bloody butcher, he stitched the inside of my gums to the tooth cavaties! So it was very difficult for me to talk alot or laugh, something I do alot of all the time! I had to cut my own stitces out after a week because it was getting so painful! But maybe don't go back to the little dude with African art everywhere, me thinks he might just do the same! Good luck Jen!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh my word my spelling is terrible!!
    Meaning to say Hey Jen, long time no see!!
    OI, sorry about that!

    ReplyDelete

Hi! You've reached Jennie. I'm not available right now. So, leave me a message after the tone and I'll be sure to get back with you. 'BEEEEEEEEP"