Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Extraction

Yes, that is a picture of my tooth. That was pulled out of my mouth. A few hours ago. Professionally. No, no crazy stories about getting a tooth knocked out or anything exciting like that. Just my second (!) extraction and implant. In one year!! What sucks the most is the cost. $2,400 today. Yes, $2,400. And none of it covered by my dental insurance because I already used up all of my dental insurance $ for this year with the FIRST implant. Two in one year? Not fair. I am thankful I have the money to do the work.


I asked to keep this tooth. I wanted to look at it. Because I am weird like that. Seriously, I haven't seen one of my teeth out of my mouth since I was a child losing baby teeth. Wouldn't you be curious to see yours too? That got me thinking - first about boxing and what it might be like to get punched and have your tooth and blood come flying out of your mouth. I see it happening in slow motion...like in the movies. Sweat flying, tooth flying, blood flying. And my second thought was - did my mother ever save any of my baby teeth? Will I find one somewhere in a little box in the attic of my parents home? I can still remember believing in the tooth fairy.

I had a great dentist in Washington, DC who I really loved. Used him for more than 10 years and recommended him to many people, but I have to say I am really impressed with the dental services I've experienced out here in the Salt Lake area so far. This periodontist who did the extraction and implant...nice guy. Turns out he is my neighbor - that just feels so Utah. 

But what really impressed me was: 

a) They had blankets! I always get chilly at the dentist so having a cozy little blanket was awesome. 

b) They offer headphones to listen to satellite radio! I never had that before. It was great to have beautiful loud classical music covering the sounds of them working in my mouth.

 c) They gave me laughing gas! I used to get that all the time as a child and I remember the floating spinning giddy feeling. I used to feel like I was doing flips in space. No one has ever offered me that since I was a child. And man oh man it still works. I was so relaxed and high during the whole procedure (2.5 hours) that I didn't care what they were doing to me. I kept falling asleep in between having deep epiphanies about life and love. 

Not bad Utah. Not bad.

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