Nothing personal

The crown on a tooth broke. 

I loathe going to the dentist.  Loathe, detest, despise and overall hate it.  Nothing personal against dentists - heck, I'm related to one. 

I admit that things have improved since I was a kid, when the dentist would stick all of his fat fingers in my mouth at the same time and then ask how I was doing in school.  I always knew he would find a cavity and my teeth would be numbed up, picked at, drilled on, and filled up.  The well water I grew up drinking (no fluoride) + my genetics, providing me with deep dental crevices, + probably not brushing enough as a kid (and floss?  What's floss?) = lots of cavities.

Then about 3 years ago, I experienced The Hack Dentist from Hell.  We'll just call him The Hack for short.  I went to him because insurance was going to cover more of what he had to do than my regular guy. I will NEVER do that again.  I had a crack in a crown and I wanted to get it taken care of before it got painful.  I didn't like The Hack's "bedside manner," but that didn't bother me too much.  But then he tried to talk me into doing more to my teeth than what I needed.  That should have been my first clue.  Then his dental assistant delivered my new crown.  Before I realized what was happening, she had drilled around on it, and completely screwed it up.  The Hack tried to make it work and couldn't.  (He tried to put bonding on a crown!  Even I know THAT would never work!!)  He ended up drilling out that crown, the one next to it, and replacing everything over the course of a couple months.  I had to get 2 root canals because of what The Hack did to those teeth.  He finally became exasperated with me (HIM with ME!!!), gave me my money back for the original work and sent me packing.  I was grateful.  I found a wonderful dentist, who fixed everything.  Well, until now.  I could have sued The Hack, but it would have come down to his word against mine and I didn't keep very good records of what happened during every single visit.  I did file a complaint with the state, just to make him as nervous as he had made me.  He no longer practices here in town.  Go figure. 

So now, the crown that The Hack put on a tooth 3 years ago has crumbled.  Here we go again.  I break out in a cold sweat just thinking about it.  This time, I will not be going to a hack, but the scene from The Marathon Man will forever run through my mind every time I walk through the doors of a dentist's office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5Qk-jB0D4