I’ve always been a little psycho about my teeth. The regular physical? The annual at the gyno? These things sometimes fall by the wayside, but teeth cleaning? Every six months on the dot. Cavity? Fill it. Old fillings? Replace them! Everything got done immediately and promptly…until I went to law school and didn’t have dental insurance.
So you can’t imagine how thrilled I was to go to the dentist today…and get a check-up and get my teeth cleaned. I knew my teeth were a little dirty, but I figured everything else would be okay. I mean, I do take good care of my teeth…
Well, at least when I’m awake, I do.
Today I found out that sometime during law school, I started gnashing my teeth while I sleep. Not just grinding, people. Gnashing. I have four different fractures in my mouth and two chunks of tooth are missing from my back molars. (I broke them off at some point apparently.) I also managed to break most of my fillings and bust through portions of my enamel (which the hygienist noticed was exceptionally thicker than most people’s) thereby enabling SIX cavities. (The hygienist also pointed out that I chewed the crap out of my cheeks and had extensive scarring there too.)
After eight different procedures and two possible crowns I will receive a bite guard.
“Your teeth don’t hurt?!?!?” the dentist asked.
Nope. I mean really. What is physical pain?
Thanks law school. Thanks for creating some type of bizarre stress that goes beyond anything I’ve ever known…even though graduate school was one of the more superficial challenges of my life.
Chomped my mouth so hard that I broke my own teeth, people! What the heck? (And no, it wasn’t from chewing ice. I haven’t had an ice maker in years.)
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5 comments:
Can we get some kind of class action lawsuit going here??? I have become a jaw clencher/teeth gnasher with the best of them. Ever since law school, and now working-- in any of these damn stressful situations I find myself clenching my teeth! I actually do get the molars getting sore from the pressure. How lame is that!?! Good luck with the dentistry work! I can't believe you actually lost a chunk of a tooth!
I'll join in on the class action suit. The same thing (minus the chunk of tooth) happened to me in law school. Now I have to wear a mouthguard at night to protect my teeth from my intense clenching/grinding. I look like a football player when I go to bed.
Good luck getting your toofies taken care of!
Mouthguard, now that just screams romance. Good luck.
Ugh, add me to the club. Who knew you needed to be saving thousands of dollars for crowns and root canals in your thirties? ick.
Not only was I a teeth gnasher, I had reoccurring nightmares thoughout law school that my teeth fell or or broke off. I would routinely wake up and go to the bathroom to make sure they were still there.
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