It's a big joke in my family that I not only married a Baptist but a Baptist DENTIST!!! I absolutely hated going to the dentist growing up. My mom would have to bribe me to go. I remember I lived a solid year with a hole in my tooth where a filling came out. I just hated the shots so so much!! My dentist was SUPER nice, though....a godly, kind mad and ironically my husband ended up buying his practice. I love God's sense of humor!!! Anyway, now I spend quite a bit of time in the dental chair. I have veneers on all my top teeth and it was time to get my bottom teeth done so this is what we were doing in the pictures below. It only took us 8 hours to do all my bottom teeth. The top teeth took ALL day and ALL night but Lamar was just learning to use his machine so it took forever. He has mastered the machine now and does an awesome job! He even got asked to teach other dentists how to do it. :) Oh, and by the way, I'm NOT against Baptists at all. I just LOVE to dance! LOL! :)
If you look closely, you can see two of my natural teeth on bottom...shade A1 which used to be considered really white....not so much anymore!!! When I first got veneers 11 years ago, that was the lightest shade that could be ordered. Now, you can order Bleach shades 1-4 along with white and extra light. I have bleach shade 2 (used the bleach shade 3 block at the top of the block) with shade A1 bonded underneath it on top and bleach shade 2 with white bond underneath on bottom.
Here Mar is with his machine. I have no idea how he does it!!! It looks really hard to me but he can make a perfect fit!!! He can also duplicate your exact tooth with this machine and make another one...if you need a crown replaced or something. I love it! Also, on the crowns, you cannot feel the margins....which I LOVE!!! I always hated crowns before because I could feel the margins....not anymore with this awesome machine!
He's holding one of my veneers. :)
I always take 4 Advil and a Valium before he works on me because I have TMJ and the Valium relaxes my muscle and the Advil helps with soreness. It's a great combination! I sleep through most of his work and I'm a much better patient! :)
Numb mouth! :) Oh, I had him replace a really ugly old crown on bottom...it was yellow and you could see the silver on the bottom...UGLY!!! Anyway, something told me there was decay under there. I wasn't in pain or anything but I just KNEW. It was strange and sure enough, there was. I ended up having to have an emergency root canal Thursday night late (about a week after he worked on me). It was the hardest root canal Lamar had ever done but it ended up perfect. We were both praying. I have such a hard time with my teeth because I grinded my teeth at night for so so long and never wore a splint so I really hurt my teeth. There is SO much calcification and a lot of my nerves have gradually died from the trauma so I have to have root canals quite a bit. I floss ALL the time....I floss usually twice a day. A good habit I got in awhile back was to floss while I took a bath. So now, I can't take a bath without flossing and that's usually twice a day. Because of that, I hardly ever have cavities anymore. Lamar said the decay in that tooth probably started years ago and would have been much worse if I hadn't been flossing. By the way, did you know that not flossing can lead to all kinds of health problems? Also, once you start flossing, you never want to stop because your teeth just feel gross if you don't.
I worked at Mar's office for a week while his front desk lady was out of town. I work as his assistant and his assistant works the front desk when any employee is out of town. I do not like working the front desk. Someone always calls and has a question about their bill or insurance and I don't know how to answer or they ask for directions, which I am horrible at giving!!!. I also would rather die than ask for money!!! Anyway, here I am with one of my best friends, Heather, in the chair!! :) She is smiling for this picture. She didn't mind having her picture taken with me at all....she's such a good sport!!! The funny thing is that I used to go to Heather's dental appointments with her when she was in junior high school and now I'm helping work on her teeth. :)
Sharonica asked me if I made that weeks schedule because so many of my friends and family members came in. It was total coincidence!! I didn't even know until I looked at the schedule at the first of the week. Here we are reshaping Hannah's teeth.
I'll be working again in a couple of weeks all week. I don't mind at all as long as I get sleep the night before. Fortunately, I've gotten myself on a regular sleeping schedule for the first time in YEARS!! For the past few weeks, I've been in bed by twelve every night....some nights it's even earlier. Last night, we were asleep by 10:00!! I am a total night owl and this is totally out of character for me but it makes life so much easier when I'm on everyone else's time clock and working is not near as bad when I'm awake!! :) Also, since daylight's savings time starts tonight, I need as much daylight as possible! I can't stand it when it gets dark at 5:00 pm. :(
Enjoy your extra night of sleep everyone!!!
Comments