Toothiness

Today I had my teeth cleaned for the second time in three months.  It reminded me of another dental story.  Here is that story:

When we lived in Huntington, West Virginia, we looked for a dentist a few weeks after arriving because we believe in dental care.  Friends - a couple the wife met through academic colleagues - recommended a dentist within walking distance of our house.  That was cool.  We went there, & I luckily didn't need any work, but the wife needed to have a filling replaced.  That wasn't fun.

A year later, after we had moved to Lexington, Kentucky, the wife began experiencing pain when the replaced filling was.  She went to a different dentist & discovered the Huntington dentist had simply done a terrible job, the filling was not properly done, & it had to be replaced.

The wife was furious.  She called her friends & told them about the experience.  They said, "Oh yeah, it's happened with us, too."

It was a quintessential West Virginia experience: she's not a very good dentist, but she's our dentist.

My experience today only somewhat reminded me of this story, & what happened was, even though three months have passed since my last cleaning, my mouth was a mess.  Without going into any detail, the hygienist did a marvelous job, making me reflect that if I were a masochist, I might specialize in the weird pain/pleasure sensation of someone scraping at your gums.  It also make me realize that our dentist in Fort Worth wasn't any good.

Afterwards the wife asked me if I liked the dentist.  (I did not like our dentist in Kentucky & after three visits I found another on my own.)  She was not only relieved when I said yes, we both were surprised our teeth were in such terrible shape.

This time, though, it was entirely our fault.  We picked a dentist in Fort Worth near the wife's work, which was convenient for both of us.  & he was very kind last year (or was it the year before) when I had to have a crown replacement.

But boy his hygienists were terrible.  I haven't had my teeth cleaned that well in ages.  I look forward to six months from now!

This is probably not very interesting but it's on my mind.  I should've written about some radio meetings I had this week.  Damn.  Okay, tomorrow.