numb

just got back from ye' ol' dentist chair. half of my face is numb. i'm one of those people who is super paranoid about the dentist finding food in my teeth, so i didn't eat at all before i went. now it is almost 1pm, my stomach is empty, and i can't even feel my lips. i would attempt to eat but i don't really enjoy the taste of my own tongue. sigh...

as a kid, i loved the dentist. mostly b/c it meant a trip to grand rapids and a visit to the mall with my mom. it meant skipping almost a whole day of school and it usually meant a kids meal at McDonald's. you see, g-rap is where my kind-faced dentist lived. and at that time, i didn't. why didn't we just choose a dentist in our own home town, you ask? well, it's because our dentist was a saint. while my dad was in seminary and my family had no money at all, this man gave us free dental service, which was no cheap task for the likes of MY mouth.! so, even years later, when my dad was making the big bucks as a CRC pastor of a rural michigan church, we continued to visit our grand rapids dentist to show him our thanks. we may have even started paying him...

when i went to college i had to choose my own dentist. there was a small office around the corner from my college house, close enough to walk to, so i chose that one. and i've been going there ever since as it also happens to be around the corner from my place of employment. for many years i thought everyone at this dentist office was just pretending. a scrape-scrape here, a pick there, a very painful floss...things any joe-shmoe could do. the people are nice enough, i'd just like to see some credentials.

last week i had my sixth month check up (give it up to dental insurance!). everything checked out just fine except for this mysterious "stain" that they have been "watching" on my lower left side for over a year now. in three weeks i will no longer have dental insurance so i laid it all out on the line. "look," i said, "you've been watching that tooth for a long time now. if there is any reason that you might think you need to do something to that tooth, do it now."

did i mention that half my face is numb? -sn