Friday, February 24, 2006

A visit to the dentist


I have to get a splint. As you can see from the picture on the left, a splint goes into your mouth and then, well, I'm not sure but it appears that it sends "happy waves" to the brain. Hooray!

So the dentist was pointing out to me that my jaw clicks every time I open it.

Dentist: Have you ever noticed this?
Me: No.
Dentist: Does it hurt?
Me: No.
Dentist: Does it do this all the time?
Me: No.
Dentist: Is it sore?
Me: No.
Dentist: Do you get headaches?
Me: No.

But when I went home I thought about it and realized that I *do* get headaches (I typically ignore them). I also have this habit of massaging my jaws because the muscles there feel knotted. And I noticed that my jaw pops all the time. I just never paid any attention. I decided this is because I have a high pain tolerance. K says it's because I just don't pay attention to my body.

On another note, I would like someone to make a handbook that explains what the dentist and nurses are talking about to each other while they work on your teeth. Like this, "Number one is a 3-2-2." It makes me nervous. So much math. What if they are adding it up wrong?

P.S. I am apparently the last human being on earth to have wisdom teeth. The dentist and nurses all liked to look at them and then say, "Hey! You have wisdom teeth." I wanted to say, "Take a picture, it will last longer" but they had already done that.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:28 AM

    Last time I went to the dentist, they told me, "next time you come in, we'll schedule an appointment to pull those wisdom teeth out." I never went back. That was 9 years ago...

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  2. So now we know that wisdom teeth really do provide wisdom. We have you and me as test examples.

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  3. Um. You haven't been to the dentist in nine years.

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  4. hmm ... to be anywhere even close to being statistically significant, you need a random selected sample size of at least 25.

    so I suggest you find 25 random people and test out your theory. fyi, my dentist took away my wisdom teeth because they were afriad that I would take over the world if they had left it in ... strange

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