She's baaaaaack...And all better.

Once upon a time, I had this thing with my dentist. He and I understood one another. He knew I'd rather have a baby without anesthesia of any kind than get my teeth cleaned, and I knew he would have the nitrous ready when I had to get a cavity filled. We were all simpatico like that.

He humored me, and I went every time I was supposed to go and we got along fine.

Sure it cost more but I am worth it.

But...

then he sold his practice and I've been procrastinating (only a little) meeting the new dentist. I knew I'd have to go in there and absolutely convince her that P is for Princess and not Pain and those crowns? Those are there because I'm dental phobia ROYALTY.

And I kept asking myself, what if the new dentist isn't patient. What if she's a no-nonsense type who will try to talk me out of getting my gums numbed before a cleaning because I should be a good girl and just suck it up.

What if she says no pain, no gain, like my personal trainer, and she just tries to power me through something traumatic. That's fine for my physical trainer, my therapist, my doctor, my OBGYN, and anyone waxing hair off any part of my body. Just rip off that BandAid. Go ahead. That's fine.

But TEETH, man. That's Chinatown. That's a special kind of nightmare because they're inside my mouth...

Whoever's working on my teeth is literally all up in my grill. They have their hands and feet and instruments inside my mouth and they're capable of unspeakable torture. They can make it so I can't talk and tell them something hurts. They can make it so I can't breathe.

And lately I've been thinking...what if my new dentist doesn't get why that makes my skin creep with gooseflesh as I break out into a cold sweat. What if she thinks I'm a BABY and should simply get over it.

Not everyone is like me, I know. Plenty of people go to the dentist. They don't like it, but they don't feel nauseated just thinking about it.

Of course there's therapy, but that costs a lot more than Nitrous over the long term and it takes longer and you have to really want to change...

As it turned out, I had to meet my new dentist yesterday, when I had to have a crown replaced in a rather urgent situation. She squeezed me into a busy day and listened to everything I had to say. Not only was she supportive of my many quirks, she let me watch Sherlock Holmes, Game of Shadows while she filled me with Nitrous like a Macy's parade balloon and fixed my problem quickly and efficiently.

Huzzah!

Headphones, Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, and enough pain meds that I didn't feel much of anything later, and Bob's your uncle, I'm ready for the holidays.

I guess there are plenty of times when I haven't made my feelings known because it's not that big a deal. I accept that  pain is a necessary part of life.

Still, I'm confident that in this one particular event (if I want to keep my teeth, anyway) I have to ask for what I need instead of avoiding the dentist either because I'm afraid to go, or I'm afraid to ask them to treat me like an unexploded bomb when I'm there.

I wish I'd known that when I was younger, I might be better off, tooth-wise now!

This is DAY Eight

of the GREAT HOLIDAY ZAMFEST!
what's in it for you?

Welcome to the twelve days of ZAMfest All you have to do is comment to enter the daily drawing and I'll pull a new name from the hat each night to win an ebook from my backlist. The TWELFTH day will be Christmas, that's when I'll put the name of anyone who leaves me a comment on all twelve blogs, into a drawing and one very lucky person will win the grand prize-- a $50 dollar Amazon Gift Card. If you're new to the ZAMfest, it's not too late to go back and comment on earlier blogs. Good Luck!

DAY Seven's winner is Suze! I'll be contacting you to see which ebook you'd like!

In the meantime, here's a little dental humor:

You'll have to click the link for this, because I couldn't figure out how to embed this without embedding the whole playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1phr_MLnIM&list=UU6Po3g-RWdzeOXcD2JnaOsQ&index=2