I'm in love with my new dentist
Dec. 20th, 2006 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmuppetLots of work to get done, as I expected. My last dentist did indeed make a mess, as I suspected (that experience, and knowing there was no way in hell I was going back to them, is part of why it's taken me a while to get motivated to find a new dentist). Got two root canals today, and go back for crowns on January 3rd, when I've got my new year's allocation of FlexPay, and there still some more stuff to be done after that. But even considering that I got plenty of bad news, and two of the procedures most commonly used a metaphor for suckiness, it was a very positive visit.
The cleaning used a new ultrasonic waterpick thingee in place of the evil scrapey tool that I loathe (I react to metal scraping the way most people do to nails on chalkboard, and having that happen inside my mouth is one of my least favorite things in the world), and it was the least icky cleaning I've had as a result (she also said my teeth were really clean, given that it'd been a year and a half since my last cleaning - being obsessive about dental hygiene in an attempt to compensate for being a smoker has its upsides). The dentist came in, and we figured out exactly what was going to need to be done, and they sent me out to the office folks to figure out how to make it all work best with my insurance and everything. The guy doing their financial processing was incredibly helpful -- just sat me down and made it all happen -- and they even gave me the Lutheran CCF additional discount, even though I'm actually Central Region CCF, and I did clarify that to them. We figured out that the best plan was to do the two root canals tonight, and put the crowns on right after the new year, so back into the chair. I started to doze off in the chair more than once while he was working, and as well as being the gentlest dentist I recall, he was very good about checking in frequently on how I was doing (including giving me a hand signal to make if I needed him to take a break for a moment), and he explained what he was doing and what it was going to feel like throughout. At present my face is still half numb, and I'm just starting to feel the soreness, and I'm a bit nervous about the Dr. Pepper I'm going to attempt to drink without splooshing down the front of my shirt. But, damn, that could've been so much worse in about a million ways. If I evaluated dentists instead of residents, I would so be putting raving reviews all over the comment section on that eval form.
Very pleased.
So, free advertising for them as a thank you, in case anybody local is looking:
Hudec Dental Associates, Lutheran office. I saw Dr. Mancuso.
Also, I came home to find an Amazon package that of course I did not wait 'til Christmas to open (will power has never been one of my strong points). Chris sent me Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs and Killer Muppets, which I'm very psyched about, especially since Bec and Jer just gave me part of Farscape Season 4. And in writing about last weekend, I forgot to tell about the very cool hematite necklace with a little hematite goddess pendant that Fin made for me (hematite is one of my absolute favorite stones) (and Rio painted me a very pretty box that's perfect for holding it, too). So yay, and thank you!
I'm pretty sure I'm working 14 hour shifts both tomorrow and Friday. Given that, I think it's not a bad thing that Casey needed to reschedule our plans for tonight, and we're getting together Saturday night instead (I'll also get to see her Saturday morning, since we're escorting together).
The cleaning used a new ultrasonic waterpick thingee in place of the evil scrapey tool that I loathe (I react to metal scraping the way most people do to nails on chalkboard, and having that happen inside my mouth is one of my least favorite things in the world), and it was the least icky cleaning I've had as a result (she also said my teeth were really clean, given that it'd been a year and a half since my last cleaning - being obsessive about dental hygiene in an attempt to compensate for being a smoker has its upsides). The dentist came in, and we figured out exactly what was going to need to be done, and they sent me out to the office folks to figure out how to make it all work best with my insurance and everything. The guy doing their financial processing was incredibly helpful -- just sat me down and made it all happen -- and they even gave me the Lutheran CCF additional discount, even though I'm actually Central Region CCF, and I did clarify that to them. We figured out that the best plan was to do the two root canals tonight, and put the crowns on right after the new year, so back into the chair. I started to doze off in the chair more than once while he was working, and as well as being the gentlest dentist I recall, he was very good about checking in frequently on how I was doing (including giving me a hand signal to make if I needed him to take a break for a moment), and he explained what he was doing and what it was going to feel like throughout. At present my face is still half numb, and I'm just starting to feel the soreness, and I'm a bit nervous about the Dr. Pepper I'm going to attempt to drink without splooshing down the front of my shirt. But, damn, that could've been so much worse in about a million ways. If I evaluated dentists instead of residents, I would so be putting raving reviews all over the comment section on that eval form.
Very pleased.
So, free advertising for them as a thank you, in case anybody local is looking:
Hudec Dental Associates, Lutheran office. I saw Dr. Mancuso.
Also, I came home to find an Amazon package that of course I did not wait 'til Christmas to open (will power has never been one of my strong points). Chris sent me Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs and Killer Muppets, which I'm very psyched about, especially since Bec and Jer just gave me part of Farscape Season 4. And in writing about last weekend, I forgot to tell about the very cool hematite necklace with a little hematite goddess pendant that Fin made for me (hematite is one of my absolute favorite stones) (and Rio painted me a very pretty box that's perfect for holding it, too). So yay, and thank you!
I'm pretty sure I'm working 14 hour shifts both tomorrow and Friday. Given that, I think it's not a bad thing that Casey needed to reschedule our plans for tonight, and we're getting together Saturday night instead (I'll also get to see her Saturday morning, since we're escorting together).
