Simon's Stuff

Dentistry

Aside from feeling very tired and trying to to design a large piece of software the last few weeks have also been filled with dentistry. To whit: one regular filling, one root canal treatment, one minor filling and fissure cap, and the rebuilding of several of my front teeth that have worn away from excessive gnawing on things, not least my finger nails.

That lot may sound rather herculean, but in fact there have been several pleasant surprises. There are still such things as NHS dentists. Root canal treatments do not, in fact, hurt any more than regular fillings. And finally, white fillings are really cool. My upper front teeth now look a lot straighter than they did, and you cannot see the join between the filling material and tooth without looking at them in the mirror at a distance of a couple of centimeters. And that is in spite of the inconsistent color of my teeth, which is apparently due to fluoridosis - the incorportation of fluoride into the teeth themselves because of excess consumption (either from toothpaste or water) while they were forming. The really cool thing about have white fillings put into front teeth is you can see what is going on in the dentists mirror - there is no drilling involved, and they harden the things using a UV light, so you can see your teeth lit up in blue.

Aside from a little tenderness when the novacaine wore off, the worst part of the whole experience so far has been trying to keep my mouth open for an hour at a time, especially since I have a cold. I am sure you do not want me to elaborate.