I was talking to Miguel earlier today about dentists because I had an appointment earlier this afternoon to have a cavity drilled. Miguel has never had a filling. He also doesn't floss or use a fluoride treatment like GEL-KAM. Not only that, he's only been to the dentist twice during his 20s. Yes, Miguel floats through life without a dental care in the world because he was born with good teeth.

I, on the other hand, have crappy teeth. And during most of my youth, I did a poor job brushing. But even these days, with my increasing attention to the health of my teeth, it doesn't seem to do enough good. Almost every time I go for a cleaning (every 6 months), they find a new cavity. And today I was told that the existing filling in my upper right wisdom tooth has a new cavity, and I should probably just have it extracted.

For evil people like Miguel and the other guy who reads this blog, I have decided to explain the filling process from the viewpoint of a frightened little girl trembling in the dentist chair (me). And I have enough experience to know, since all but 10 of my teeth have had at least one cavity.

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1. The dentist pokes around with that sharp hooked instrument (much like a scythe) until he is sure he knows exactly where the cavity is.


2. He sticks a Q-tip in your mouth and runs along the gums a sticky substance that numbs the area.


3. After a few minutes, he pulls out his syringe, which looks way too metallic and large to be a syringe. He gives you a shot in the area for about 5 seconds to slightly numb it.


4. After a few more minutes, he gives you a much longer shot. At this point, you're too numb to feel pain, although you can feel the tip of the syringe moving around in your gums as he pushes it deeper to numb the whole region. Very disturbing. Your face at this point looks like someone put a sweatsock in your mouth.


5. Now you wait 10 minutes or so. He comes back and begins drilling. Depending on the size of the cavity, this takes generally anywhere from 1 minute to 10 minutes. He may also use his scythe to try to manually clean out the cavity.


6. During all of this, his assistant is sucking up the bits of tooth, blood, decay, and drool that have accumulated in your mouth.


7. At this point, they fill the tooth, dry the material and then polish it to make sure it's smooth and comfortable. This isn't painful at all and you're generally so relieved that the drilling is done that this part flies by.


8. They let you go. Once the anesthetic wears off, it aches a little bit, but it's usually not too bad. Mine's wearing off right now and it's actually feeling pretty good.

I hope this sheds some light on what it's like to have a cavity drilled. Hopefully those of you like Miguel who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths can learn from this.

Wouldja look at those #@$*#@ pearly whites