My last day of work is tomorrow and, while I still have it, I thought it would be nice to take advantage of my health insurance. So, today I saw the dentist, Dr. Preese. He’s just been in Wrangell for a month now, but he’s here to stay. Wrangell's newest permanent dentist. He’s from Utah and his wife also works in the clinic.
Each new dentist is another opportunity to introduce your mouth to someone new. And it doesn’t take much verbally; most of the history is contained right in the mouth, embedded in each tooth. The x-rays were taken and then he grasped his tools and proceeded on with the business of looking at my actual teeth. As he went over each tooth, he would call out which ones had fillings to his assistant. And there were quite a few. I don’t remember the different names he used, but the silver ones he referred to as “silver” fillings. Those are the older ones, when cavities were filled in with pieces of metal. I once had a whole tooth completely covered in a metal, but it was a baby tooth so it eventually fell out.
I felt somewhat embarrassed about how many fillings I had, plus as he called those out, he intermixed them with which teeth had cavities. Again, there were quite a few (five). I always have new cavities every few years or so. There was at least one tooth that had both a filling and a cavity, if one can believe that. Dr. Preese did not seemed fazed. Just a few minutes earlier he had said I had beautiful teeth. It seems an oxymoron to have “beautiful” teeth that are riddled with fillings and cavities.
I felt safe under the care of Dr. Preese. I love going to the dentist. I haven’t always, because when I was younger, it would oftentimes hurt. But as an adult I’ve grown to genuinely love the dentist – the going, the sitting in the waiting room, the laying back, everything. Unlike a general doctor’s office, at the dentist, things are actually getting done. People are being productive and I can immediately feel the results.
I look back at my dentist experiences in Hong Kong fondly. It’s funny because I don’t remember the actual dentist, but I can remember the office and feeling excited about being there. The office was the most modern office I think I’ve ever been to. Everything was white and bright and clean. There was a flat screen TV in the waiting room that played music videos. And, like every other office in Hong Kong, it was overly air-conditioned, which when you’re in Hong Kong can be good and bad. For some reason, at the dentist office, it was good.
I’m seeing Dr. Preese on Monday for a filling. I wonder what kind it’ll be this time.
