Visit to the German Dentist

Yesterday Jan and I had our teach cleaned. I never loved the dentist, but I never faced it with great fear either. Now that has changed!!

The German dentist is much different from the American version.

Ok, so I don't have the best teeth technique. I brush with my electric tooth brush twice a day and rinse with Listerine, but flossing - er, not so much. After all both my tooth brush and Listerine tell me they are as good as flossing.... also, not so much.

First I walked in and the dentist asked me why my tooth in position 1 looked yellow. I of course, said, which tooth do you mean and attributed it to coffee. After a quick put freezing something on your teeth test - we learned that my tooth has no feeling. In fact, my tooth is dead!!!! And I need a root canal! And perhaps I can´t have root canal because the nerve might be calcified! And this is a big problem! This woman, after looking at me for 5 seconds, detected a problem and identified the cause after my American dentist said anything for years. I always was suspicious about that woman (something to do with almost paralyzing my face.)

She also told me that I got my implant at too young an age and that they did a shoddy job of bonding. Basically tsking and saying that it must be very different in the USA. Now excuse me, but my implant and bonding were done by very expensive dentists who have dental students observing them - so they must be good? Not so much.

This dentist also identified a cavity and filled it right then and there. Very convenient. And at 56 Euros, quite a bargain.

All well and good. Next the dental hygienist showed up and proceeded to do what can best be called torture. She told me, well, I´ll do my best but I can`t promise I can get everything else. Then she basically gouged out my gums. No pause, no does this hurt, no gum numbing gel!! It was incredibly painful and bloody. Horrible.

She sent me off with an admonishment that I better do something or it will only get worse. My mouth ached for the entire day. Needless to say, I flossed last night and I have already flossed today. Don´t want to mess with these German dentists.