SMILE! (well, as good as I can)

OK, so I had my first appointment with Dr. Gibberman and I can’t wait to get the ball rolling. I have to admit, I was a nervous wreck—about an hour before I left work I started getting butterflies in my stomach. You know, the bad kind. The butterflies that make you think you’re going to get sick. Guys, I gotta be honest here. It’s been YEARS since I’ve been to the dentist. You know that reaction you have when you get sick after eating at a restaurant? That signed in your own blood promise that you will never eat there again? Yeah, that’s me and the dentist. One bad experience and I wrote them off. So the time comes and I get there. My nerves started to calm a bit—it didn’t even feel like a dentist’s office. The lighting was sort of warm, the décor was comfy meets chic—ya’ll, they had a coffee machine. “Hey,” I thought, “this is actually pretty darn nice!” The nerves calmed more when Jennifer greeted me with a big smile, and said, “You must be Veronica!” Wow, she’s good—why can’t the doctor’s office greet me that same way? After a few minutes (I was a little early) I met Dr. Gibberman. He’s pretty calm, cool, and collective. “Ugh,” I thought, “let the badgering begin.” Well folks, I was wrong. For starters he didn’t crack the ruler against my knuckles for not being to the dentist in a while. Apparently I’m not the only one who has a bad experience and swears them off forever. He first started off asking what I wanted, what do I want to get out of this. Huh??? A dentist who doesn’t say, “Like it or not, this is what’s gonna happen!”??? Hey, I like this guy already and I’ve only know him for a minute! I want to be able to smile and not feel like it’s fake. I want to not want to turn my head shamelessly and sink in a hole every time someone says, “The first thing I notice is someone’s smile,”or “Oh my God! Did you see how jacked up their mouth is?” I NEVER show my teeth in pictures—I don’t think I have since the third grade. So I’m stuck with the “catch 22”—I feel fake when I don’t show my teeth, and even more fake when I do. Overall, I flat out hate my big gaping, small teeth smile. So he had me smile really big so he could get a look at what he has to work with. He had me smile really big a few times. I told him how forced that felt, that smiling like that doesn’t feel natural. He had me count to ten. He said, “of course it doesn’t, you don’t even show your teeth when you talk.” How bad is that people? I have become so accustomed to hiding my teeth, I have subconsciously modified the way I talk to hide them! That makes me feel kinda sad for myself. How much more have I hidden or modified because my teeth embarrass me? How many conversations have I dodged because I didn’t want to take the chance of them seeing my gaps? How many pictures have I been unhappy with because my smile looks down right pathetic? Now I’m ready to get into action—I don’t want to feel like this anymore. Dr. Gibberman went on with what the action plan will be. First things first—a full exam. We gotta find out how deeply rooted this baby cuspate (I think that’s what the term is), if there is even a root at all. Then we gotta see what kind of shape the permanent tooth is at that is up in my gums. Did you know that teeth that grow in your gums and never come out can actually grow cysts? Yeah, found that one out from the good doctor. Cysts that can actually cause cancer! Yikes!!! Depending on what kind of situation we got with that cuspate, I can either go full swing into veneers if things look rooted, or a 3 piece porcelain bridge if the tooth has gotta go. Either way, I can’t wait. I’m so freakin’ excited I could pee my pants. Well, not literally pee my pants, but you catch my drift. I am a conformed anti-dentist. You can quote me on this—I can’t wait to go back to the dentist!