I went to the dentist about a month ago because I hadn’t been since middle school and I finally got dental insurance so I thought, why not!
According to the Dentist, I was lucky. I had healthy, good looking teeth with very little plaque. I did however, have a few tiny cavities. I was told they are so small that it’s not actually a pressing matter to get them filled right away but silly me decided better get them taken care of while I can.
So it gets scheduled and the appointment finally came around this week.
I walk in and it’s a different dentist from the one that reviewed my xrays. I’m thinking,”Ok. It will be fine.” Except this one is seriously lacking in “bedside manner”.
She literally said one sentence to me the whole time I was there. She didn’t confirm that I was the right patient. She didn’t remind me of what we were doing that day. She just walked up to me, blinded me with the lamp and stuck a needle in my gums.
Now, I really know nothing about dentistry or the way dentist treat their patients but having a dentist that doesn’t even talk to you to tell you what she is doing or tell you how to care for your teeth after the procedure…that’s not normal right?
I didn’t make a fuss about her lack of people skills. I just sat there and let her get to work. Big mistake!
She stuck that numbing needle so far up my gum that my eye ball and forehead got numb from the shot.
I ask her, “Is this normal?”
and she says “Yes….”
She proceeds to start drilling and I almost jump out of the chair. Turns out the area around the teeth were not numb. Well gosh! Could that be because all the numbing medicine went to my eyeball and forehead!?
Oh goody…. looks like it’s time for another injection. This time it hurt like hell. It felt like she was scrapping my gums with it or jabbing it in and out repeatedly.
She waits less then one minute and starts again except this time I’m freaking out.
Why?
Because all of a sudden I can’t feel my throat. I feel like it’s closing up. I ask her (awkwardly because my tongue is numb and there is a ton of spit in my throat since i can’t feel the muscles enough to swallow),
“What is in that needle?”
She replies with, “Why?”
I glare at her and say “I’m scared I might be allergic to it!”
and instead of telling me what’s in the thing she scolds me and says
“Don’t you think that’s something you should have told me before I started”. (!!!)
Well, if she read my file (like she should have) she would have known what I was allergic to and whether or not the needle was full of something that would put my in shock.
Thankfully, the numbness in my throat went away enough for me to be able to swallow (Im guessing some of the medicine squirted out of the needle and ran down my throat) and she proceeded.
I thought I was going to pass out. Tears were streaming down my cheeks and I ended up pressing the tip of my thumb nail into my other thumb so that I could focus on something else other then the intense pain in my mouth. It didn’t feel like my cavities were being filled, it felt like she was ripping my tooth out and drilling into my bone.
Now I can hear you saying, “Well, maybe your just a baby when it comes to pain.” and that would be a fair assumption except that I survived two child births with no pain medicine and they were both turned the wrong way. Not just hours of labor…. days! So I know the difference between pain and being mildly uncomfortable.
18 minutes into the procedure she’s done and sends me out the door. The dental assistant gives me two instructions (1) Don’t eat anything on that side of the mouth for the rest of the day (no worries there since I doubted my mouth would ever function again) and (2) The teeth might feel a bit “sensitive” for 6-8weeks. 6-8 Weeks! What?! and What exactly does she mean by “sensitive”?
Immediately after leaving the dentist I head straight home because the whole left side of my face was numb and droopy. I couldn’t go around town looking like I had a stroke or else I would end up being chased down by well meaning EMT’s lol so I went home and crawled into bed until my kids got home. It took 4 hours for my eye ball, forehead and throat to feel normal but the whole left side of my face felt numb up until today (3days later).
Now here’s the really shitty part of my story. I went in with small cavities on two teeth that are next to each other. Cavities so small that you could not see them just by looking into my mouth and they never once gave me problems (pains). I left that place with a huge ditch that runs the length of both teeth and is basically filled in with rough feeling cement.
I think that dentists really screwed up my teeth! There is no way this is right or normal. Not to mention it hurts like hell….still.
I can’t eat anything that isn’t soft and I can’t eat anything on that side at all because the smallest things will get stuck in that damn ditch she made. Not to mention that my tooth aches when I eat or drink anything remotely sweet.
I’m pissed! I have three more SMALL cavities to fill and I’ll be damned if I let her near my mouth again.
Anyway, I’m telling you this as a way of explaining why Wednesday’s blog article was missing. Sorry for being a “no-show” 🙂 I’ve spent three days loaded up on Aspirin and Ibuprofen being moody and pretty much starving. Enough is Enough! I’m calling another dentist tomorrow to see just how screwed up my teeth are.
Wish me luck that I find a dentist who actually knows what they are doing and cares about their patients.
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