Nothing serious for today’s vent. Just a minor annoyance. What is it? I hate those sharp pointy things that they use at the dentist’s to scrape your teeth. I hate everything about them. I hate the sound they make, the feeling they give you as they grate against your bicuspids, the sharp jab they give your gums now and then. Surely, after all these advances in science and medicine, there must be something better to use to clean teeth with. Isn’t this why we invented lasers? Come on, dentists! Use some lasers, for crying out loud. I mean, sure–you might say that lasers and dentistry don’t really go together, but wouldn’t you have said the same thing about lasers and eye doctors? Yet look at LASIK. I rest my case.
Bottom line: those pointy things must go. Science, I give you six months to come up with a solution. That’s how long until my next appointment, and it’s pretty generous on my part. If I show up in six months and I’m greeted by pointy things . . . it won’t be pretty, science.
Not pretty at all.
Dentists
Well Bryce:
Good news–there are many wonderful tools that dentists can use that will quicken the work, lasers that do things for your mouth, etc. They are out there.
Bad news–no dentists use them. Actually that is not quite true, I know of one dentist who prides himself on being uber-up-to-date in Manhattan, but he is also known for the charging the pants off his patients. Also, students in dental schools all over the country are taught to use the drill and such cozy tools as you listed. In order to learn about the extra tools they must attend seminars and, to be short, it is really drawn out.
My DH is a maxillofacial and oral surgery resident (6 years of extra school beyond dental school–same schooling amount as a neurosurgeon).
Your cousin:
Melanie
Re: Dentists
A maxillo what? This all sounds so complicated–but if there are lasers out there, and they can be used, then I think Barack Obama needs to do something about it. Change I can believe in!!! 🙂
Umm. Doesn’t your dentist have an ultrasonic scaler? (I think that’s what it is called). It uses a combination of sound waves and water to get the gunk off your teeth and is pretty standard in veterinary dentistry. Yay Science!!
Down side: the thing must have the exact resonance frequency as some little bone in my head because it always gives me a raging headache when my dental hygienist uses it. I have to request the manual scraping, so I get the usual nastiness plus the added bonus that my dental hygienist doesn’t like having to do it that way.
I think they only take that out if there’s really bad plaque or whatever. They’ve used it on me before, but only the first time, when I hadn’t been in like 5 years.
They seem always to want to use it on me. What does that say about my teeth?
Um . . . you need to floss more? Or maybe I need to floss less?