My Teefs, Toofs, Teeth

Dentally, I have been relatively lucky.  I never wore braces on my bottom teeth and only had braces on the top for a few months.  I decided to be all sly about it and get “clear” braces.  They were not so clear and I found that out a few hours after getting them when I ate an orange and ended up picking orange pulp out of them for a week. They also became orange tinted for a while. 

 "Clear" braces are NEVER this clear!!  Curse you fake advertising!!

Well I had a pretty good track record with cavities, until I moved to a new city. It must be something with the city water, but a few cavities popped up within months.   I decided to nip it in the bud and get them filled.  Everything went relatively fine.  I had 2 fillings in one sitting and very little pain.  A few weeks later I was having sensitivity. I waited it out as long as I could before I decided to go back to my dentist.  The Dr. pointed out my biggest fear: root canal. Imagine him saying it in slow motion like "Bueller" and it's a lot more funny.

So... I got a root canal. The Dr. said it was an easy procedure based on my roots so no need to go to and Endodontist. Well, that didn't work out as planned.  I went back 2 times saying I still had pain. He kept attaching that bad-ass dental damn and "going in."

This gets very uncomfortable after an hour.

 Fail. He sent me to the Endo. Let me point out that the cost of dentistry rises with the cost of living, so when you live in an expensive city, you have expensive dentists.  I totally maxed out my dental insurance so now I was actually paying to be in more pain - pure and simple hell.  So off I went to the Endo.  I am not there 30 seconds when he conducted the "cold test" which is basiclly putting a frozen peice of metal on your tooth to see if you can feel it.  Tested the "root canaled-tooth," no feeling. Tested the tooth NEXT TO the root canaled-tooth, screaming bloody agony. I needed another root canal in the next tooth!  Yes, that's a second root canal, although by this point I had already had 3 "tries" on the first one.  The next 2 weekends were dedicated to more dental dams and lots of suction. (Hey, get your head out of your ass.  I mean that little suction tube that hangs out of your mouth to keep the drool to a minimum.)  Total, it was more like 5 in 3 weeks instead of 2 clean procedures.  I know what you're thinking: did they root canal the wrong tooth? Well, we will never know, but I will tell you something. I found a new dentist and he is awesome.