What a pain.

I feel like I've blogged about my tooth before. Have I? I checked back on my list of blog posts and if I did I can't find it. If I have and this seems familiar to you, stop reading and do me the favor of leaving a comment that says "Stop repeating yourself".  

I'm in the market for a new dentist. I am not happy about it. It's hard to find a good dentist. Same is true of a good hairdresser. Getting your hair cut or having dental work is tough for an introvert. Both are very personal services to begin with. Then to make matters worse the people providing the service try to chit chat you up while they are doing it.

You can tell when they are faking a personal interest in you. Please don't bother. Just (cut my hair), (fill my tooth) and I'll be on my way. What I liked about this dentist was his sincerity. Quiet guy who really seemed to take an interest in his patients. It took me a long time to find him and I've been going to him for years. My whole family goes to him now.

In the beginning everything went wonderfully between my dentist and me but over the last few years our relationship has deteriorated. I blame him.

He botched a root canal and ignored me every six months when I told him that the tooth felt funny. Not painful, just funny. He always wanted to wait and see..... Fast forward eight years ... my tooth got infected to the point that my gum swelled up with a nice little pocket of pus. Gross, I know, but that's what it was.

I made an appointment. Finally, he gave me a referral to an endodontist who re-did the root canal. My misery wasn't over though. The infection was so bad I had to go back four months later and have oral surgery to scrape the infection from my bone.

I decided I had had enough. I was going to find a new dentist. I know some of you are thinking "Hello?? Why did you wait eight years?" Please see above where I mention I "hate" finding a new dentist. I finally had to admit though that quality of dental work surpasses the quality of the social experience while in the chair.

As I was procrastinating about actually doing something to find a new dentist one of my fillings fell out. I had no choice. I went back to my dentist.

He put a new filling in and told me we would have to do a crown. I asked if I would need a root canal before he did it. He actually answered me "Well, I know how sensitive you are about root canals because of that problem you had with the last one. If you think you need one, we can do it."

If I think I need one? Aren't you the freaking dentist? Shouldn't you be telling me what I need? And how dare you act as if my root canal problem was an emotional issue on my part. That's it. I am REALLY finding a new dentist now.