Dentist

Today I went to the dentist and for the first time ever I had a rubber dam used on me. I’m trying really hard not to call it a dental dam, because dental dam means something dirty whereas rubber dam means that I had zero to little anxiety while getting two fillings replaced.

Have you had this?

I was surprised to hear that this is one of the first things dentists in training learn, and that I had avoided it all these years. It’s basically a sheet of rubber that they strategically place over your mouth and wedge into place by things jammed into your teeth. It ends up doing three awesome things. 1) it catches any debris that might be flying out of your tooth…in this case an old filling. 2) because of how it’s suspended the tension actually keeps your mouth open! No more aching jaw! (can’t think of a joke funny enough to link rubber dam, dental dam and aching jaw all in one sentence…and swallowing). 3) it also prevents all the water that the assistant is spraying into your mouth from seeping down your throat.

I was a little freaked out when they started putting it in place, since I had never had one, but as soon as the dentist started working I immediately settled down. It was the most awesome thing ever! It was so good, in fact, that I didn’t even feel like I was getting work done on my teeth. There was no stress to keep my mouth open since it was practically being held open for me. There was no panicky feeling about not being able to swallow and to breath because nothing was going into my mouth. My dentist likes to have the chair tilted so that I feel upside down and it makes it ten times harder to keep water from seeping down my throat and I get all stressed out. But today! I literally, almost fell asleep. I was so out of it when they finished, because I was so relaxed, that I think I dozed a bit. I know! Kooky!

And when I woke up I had two brand new non-filling fillings! My first ever on those, too. I typically don’t get them because I have some serious jaw clenching and grinding issues and crack just about any type of filling that goes in my mouth. But nowadays, they have made tooth colored fillings stronger and the dentist feels confident that these will last. We’ll see about that since one time a dentist told me that it was impossible to wear down or crack the amalgam fillings and I was just looking at her and pointing at my mouth and saying, Hello! Because I had one down one whole side of an amalgam filling/tooth.