Minor hell

Just to start things off, I'd like to make it clear that I'm quite aware that other people have had far, far worse dentist visits than I just endured. But I have to point out that it was worse byorders of magnitude than any other visit I've ever had.

To start with, they were running late (Calgary winter weather strikes again) so they put in my freezing and then I sat around for an hour. She finally showed up and started drilling out the first cavity that had to be filled. She got it drilled, then got called away and I sat for another 15 minutes or so. She came back and filled it and it wasn't too bad.

There was another one to do and she asked if I wanted to do it now or book another appointment. It has already been a long day, but I didn't really want to go through all that again and the first wasn't bad, so I said let's just get it over with. She said, "it's small, so it shouldn't take long." Hah! She drilled and drilled and in the end, I had a giant hole in my tooth and just barely enough enamel over the root to make a pretty pearly sheen.

She painted on something or other that's supposed to make the nerve grow away from the surface, but apparently only has a 25% success rate in adults. Then she packed in a bunch of filler. I have to go back in 6 months (or earlier if it becomes a problem) to let her drill out the filling and check the root. If it's moved, then she replaces the filling; if it hasn't, then I get a root canal. Wheeeeee.

I brush twice or three times a day, I floss 4 or 5 times a week, I go for check-ups every 6 months and this is the pay off? It seems strange that in 5 months, the cavity went from the "watch list" to something THAT deep. What the hell are we paying all these hundreds of thousands of dollars for dentists and their fancy equipment for, if they aren't effective?