And it's done

It was a lot easier this time. Partly I'm more used to it, partly they didn't have to cut the temporary off this time. The dentist did have to work over the crown a good bit (it was "too high" and needed grinding down). It still feels a bit "high" but I'm going to give it a couple days - the temporary had kind of compressed and was a little short, and I lived with that for six weeks or so and got used to it. So my sense that the crown is "high" may be a misinterpretation. It feels pretty much in line with my other teeth....

I will say I always forget about the seemingly interminable waits during the process. I don't like that so much. Especially when you can hear the stuff going on in the other "operatories" - some of the sounds I recognized (the drill, oh man, listening to a drill while you are sitting waiting is not fun) and some I didn't (something that sounded like a person shaking up a can of spray paint?).

The hygienist did ask me if I had ever thought of taking a "nerve pill" (Honey, you're too young to use that terminology, okay? My grandmother used to talk about "nerve pills." The old dude I learned to drive from used to joke about carrying "nerve pills" (which were actually hot cinnamon balls) with him in the car). I said no, because then I'd have to line up someone to drive me and....wharrgarble. It's just easier for me to tough it out than to do that. She did say, "You get through it fine" (thank you for noticing that) "but maybe it would help you relax."

I don't know. I know lots of people take Xanax or something before going to the dentist (or even to some other medical professionals) but I don't know. At this point I can tough through it - not comfortably, but I can - and then I can easily go back to work when I'm done.

Marginally-related observation: we have yet to see a "canon" dentist in Ponyville. ("Colgate" notwithstanding, in the series I don't remember seeing a dentist). And this isn't some case of "Oh, they  eat such a healthy diet they wouldn't get caries,*" because Sugarcube Corners. (And I admit it: I love seeing the fanciful cakes and stuff the artists come up with for the show, cakes that come in totally unnatural colors and with gravity-defying icing)

We've seen doctors and pediatricians and even a veterinarian, but no dentist I can remember.

Heh. Now I think of what one of my friends in grad school who taught at a Junior College For The Not Very Bright Or Motivated** said one of his students once said to him: "You know, movies aren't like real life. You never see anyone brushing their teeth in the movies."

(*Apparently one way archaeologists deduce whether a population was primarily hunters or whether grain-growing had become common there, is looking for evidence of dental caries. In populations where toothbrushing didn't exist, apparently caries are a lot less common among people who eat mainly meat)

(**As opposed to those for good students who want to get their gen-eds out of the way less-expensively than they could at a big state school or private college. There are good junior colleges out there but the one in question was not one of them.)

Also, my most recent yarn order came, so I can start that gift-Hitchhiker any time now. And I, um, ordered some yarn for myself. To get the free shipping, see? Because the shipping was free?