This won't hurt a bit.

I had to go to the dentist this morning to get a cavity filled. Yep. I had a (gasp) cavity. For anyone who knows me, I am very particular about my teeth. I have recurring nightmares that my teeth are falling out, so anything bad that happens with my teeth sort of freaks me out. You can only imagine the utter fear & shame I felt when the good dentist confirmed that my "sticky spot" on my tooth since 2004 is now a cavity that needs a filling. (Yes, you read that right--I had this for five years until it finally became an actual cavity--an extremely tiny cavity, I might add).

So, I walked in to have Crystal, the receptionist greet me with a smile. I sat down & waited. Everyone in the room was called except me, even the people that came in after me. Weird, huh? I was hoping they had forgotten me sitting there in the corner of the waiting room. But they didn't. Wishful thinking on my part.

As I got situated, I heard the doctor's voice behind me: "Good morning, Michelle. How are you today?" I was brutally honest. "I'm not happy to be here, & I'll be much happier when I'm leaving here, but other than that, I'm just great, " I said sarcastically. He gave a small chuckle & proceeded to tell me a big fat lie: "This won't hurt a bit!"

Okay. (sigh). What exactly does that mean?? "This won't hurt a bit". Here's the truth of it: When someone sticks a drill inside of your mouth & presses it HARD against a tooth, IT HURTS. Teeth aren't meant to be drilled. Wood is. Maybe good ol' George Washington wouldn't have minded having his wooden teeth drilled. But I'm not very fond of it.

And let's talk about the sound of the above mentioned drill. It's worse that fingernails down the chalkboard. Horr-i-fying. And you can't see what's going on. You just hear this drilling, for like 10 minutes. And you feel pressure. Ugh. It's insane. By the time he was done, I was convinced that he just drilled every tooth for the fun of it, just to see me squirm in the chair.

Okay, so let's fast forward to the filling part, which should have been pretty simple. No, it's no picnic either. In fact, I think I handled that part even worse. What do you expect when you're laying with your feet higher than your head, & you have two giant cottonballs on the inside of your cheek, a giant tube of cotton pushed under your tongue, a suction hose hanging off your lip, ten gloved fingers, & multiple dental tools ALL shoved in your mouth?? I don't have a very big mouth at all (seriously, I'm quite quiet & my mouth size is kinda small, despite what some people think--insert eye roll).

And this is why I went into panic mode. Claustrophobia set in, & I started gagging & choking. I felt trapped & was soffocating. It's a terrible feeling.

So I was so worked up, they had to leave the room for a few minutes while I caught my breath. Geez, how many grown adults have that reaction? They were super nice about it though. They came back in & kept the chair pretty upright for the most part. So I was able to breathe. Got the filling, polished it down, & then he turned off the dental overhead light, & said, "That's it! You're done! Now was that so bad?!"

Seriously, he may need to read this blog post to get his answer!