Here's the drill...

Literally,  I have a dentist appointment today.  I chipped a wisdom tooth.  I've won the battle with every dentist I've gone to about removing my wisdom teeth.  How can I write without wisdom?  Today, I'm seeing a new dentist, a woman dentist, someone with smaller hands!  How many of you have had bad dental experiences?  Show of hands please.  See, all of you have a story to tell.  I used to love going to the dentist, no I wasn't crazy, I just had a really, really good dentist when I was a kid growing up in Omaha, NE.

Since I moved away, almost forty years ago...ouch...that's a long time.  I've been dentist hopping.  I won't go into the gruesome, frightening details, one of you might be planning a trip soon,so no sense in filling your mind with terror.  I remember about ten years ago, after another bad experience, just out of curiosity, I checked for my old dentist in Omaha.  And, to my surprise, he was still practicing.  I made an appointment to see him.  I drove 300 miles to see him.  He was great, a little old, well, maybe a lot old, but he still had that magical touch.  I left his office beaming.  That is, until his receptionist told me, that was his last week. He was retiring.

I'm prepared this time.  I went in a month ago to meet the dentist and share with her my oddities concerning dental work.  I liked her, I think we will work well together.  See I sound optimistic and upbeat about this don't I?  Wanna know my secret?  How can I make light of my appointment in just over four hours?

It's my husband.  He's a hypnotherapist.  He hypnotizes people to help them with smoking, weight loss, fears...Did you catch that fear part?  He hypnotized me yesterday afternoon to prepare me for today's appointment.  He took me to a wonderful place, a relaxing place.  He filled my mind with calming thoughts.  I was floating on his every word.  Then he sneakily tossed in a line or two about speeding up my metabolism.  Too many chocolate chip cookies and too much sitting still to write and he has to listen to me complain I'm no longer a perfect size 5 like when he married me, twenty-two years ago.

That's great, I love all the help he can give me.  But, do you know what happens when your metabolism speeds up?  Remember, my bathroom story from yesterday?  Yep, your body functions faster and you have to keep running to the bathroom.  Now, compound that with my fear of the dentist and I'm going to need a catheter to stay in that chair today.

Four hours and four minutes to go...I'll let you know what happens.

March 28th, 12:50

I'm back.  The hypnosis worked.  I was a little apprehensive around the house this morning waiting to leave.  But he took me through walking into the dental office right up through the finish of the procedure during hypnosis.  I was nervous when we stopped in front of the office and I stepped out of the car.  But, the moment I stepped foot inside, all anxiety stopped and I couldn't believe how relaxed I felt.

Dr. Rachel was perfect.  She has a more gentle touch than my childhood dentist.  She broke the news to me that I didn't need an injection and I didn't need the drill after all.  She used a small dental tool to excavate the tooth and filled it.  No pain, actually no discomfort at all.  The worst thing that happened was I had a little water splashed on my face during the cleaning.   Hooray!!!  It's over.  I plan to use her for all my future dental work.  But I still had to leave the chair to pee!