I Have to Go to the Dentist

Yesterday morning, I bit into a protein bar and damaged the crown on one of my upper front teeth.  It hurts and the crown is very loose and wiggly, like a loose tooth.

I hate going to the dentist.  I haven't been to the dentist in six or seven years.  Luckily, I have really good teeth.  I have not had a cavity since I was a teenager.  About twenty years ago, I had my wisdom teeth removed. 

About 15 years ago, a child head-butted me in the mouth and broke one of my front teeth, which is how I ended up with this crown.  I was working with disabled children that were being mainstreamed into regular classrooms at the time and was sitting behind a first grader with autism and a visual impairment and she was upset about something, I don't even remember what, but she reared backwards and banged her head into my mouth, hard.  It was kinda my own fault because I should not have had my head right behind hers.  I'd had enough training to know better but was sitting in that position anyway.

Well, now I have to go to the dentist.  I'd actually been planning to go next month to get my teeth cleaned because I figure, good teeth or not, I should probably get them cleaned every six or seven years, right?  But now I have to go tomorrow.

I actually wanted to go yesterday.  It hurt, a lot, and I was afraid the loose crown was going to fall off.  Hatred of dentists or not, I grabbed the phone book and started calling local dentists to see if someone could get me in yesterday.  Unfortunately, being Saturday and all, no one could.  I did speak to a dentist on the phone, who sounded very nice, and he said he was actually out of town or else he would have been able to see my yesterday.  He said if I called the office early Monday morning, though, he would be able to see me that day.  So I am calling him first thing tomorrow morning.

I've been surviving on protein shakes and Greek yogurt since yesterday morning and I am hungry and sick of yogurt and protein shakes.  I did eat some tomato soup with shredded cheddar cheese melted in it this evening and that was a nice change.  Hopefully the dentist can fix my crown tomorrow and I will be able to eat again.

I am afraid this is going to be expensive.  Well, not exactly afraid of the expense; more of a concern than a fear, really.  I called the bank yesterday and go the limit on my credit card increased because I had a really low limit and did not have much credit left on the card.  So at least now I can cover the cost, which relieved that worry.

I am afraid it's going to hurt, and that is a fear, not just a worry.  And I just hate going to the dentist.  I hate having to keep my mouth open and having things put in my mouth and... oh, I hate all of it.