Little known fact: My front two teeth are fake.

No, really! I chipped them both off when diving into a pool during swim practice in 10th grade. (Do you remember that, Olivia?) I had a swim meet the next day, and my parents had to rush me to a dentist to get it fixed before the meet.

But this post isn’t about my front two teeth. I successfully avoided the dentist for four years, until this past June when Paul finally made an appointment for me. I really hate going to the dentist, and God has blessed me with very good teeth. In my defense, I did have braces for many, many years growing up (a pre-braces retainer in 2nd grade until I stopped wearing my post-braces retainer in 9th grade). (And after all that, I had to go and break off my front two teeth!!)

I needed braces because I sucked my thumb from the womb until I turned 12. I stopped because the orthodontist put a metal rod across the top of my mouth which prevented me from putting my thumb on the roof of my mouth and getting suction. I am grateful, because all the other methods they tried weren’t working. So I wore retainers and then braces and then a retainer again, getting the very last of what was supposed to be a permanent retainer taken off shortly before I left Peru after graduating from high school.

I went to the dentist a total of twice during college, and then I managed to avoid it until two months ago when my teeth-loving husband made me go. And I found out I have two cavities. One of the cavities is in my wisdom tooth (I only have three, and two of them never broke the surface of my gums) so they’re just going to remove it and call it a day. The other cavity I had filled last June.

Since then, my tooth has hurt a lot – mostly when I put cold things in my mouth or bite down on hard things. At first I brushed it off as just healing, but by mid August I figured I probably should call and find out if that was normal. They wanted to see me right away so I had an appointment this afternoon after work. They took out the filling, gave me some meds which supposedly will help the nerve calm down and then filled it with something temporarily. I’m supposed to go back in 3 weeks to get the filling redone.

This was about 5:30pm. I went home and rested before going off to choir. I didn’t eat or drink anything as was requested (I was told to wait 1/2 hour but I just avoided it completely). Around 9pm while I was in choir, the temporary filling fell off! I was surprised – I had been messing with it a little with my tongue, but I can’t imagine that it would have stayed on after eating and drinking if it came off that easily! Now I can feel a hole in my tooth and I’m frustrated! I still haven’t eaten or drunken anything, and I’m getting quite hungry for dinner as it is after 11! Paul wants me to call the dentist first thing tomorrow morning. I am frustrated; I really can’t miss work but I’m going to have to because Thursday is the only day they are open past 4pm. Sigh. I should have gotten a dentist by my office!

Anyways, I know this is such a simple thing, but if you could pray that my teeth just are HAPPY and stop giving me trouble!! I still have to get that wisdom tooth out in September, and honestly I am so sick of the dentist! I have a lot on my mind as far as getting ready to go to Nashville and make sure everything is in order for our October trips to Chicago and New England, not to mention figuring out if we’re going to move this fall or not. I don’t deal well with sudden changes of plans. :-) Thank you!