Bad time!!!
ooch! I have a broken teeth and they need to repair it ;-(
But Dr. Nancy is so sweet and fast!
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Pearls Before Swine
Loving Pearls Before Swine. Great little comic I started reading not too long ago.
This strip is by far my favourite :P
Thanks
Yellow Springs Clinic Razed!
Wright State University Yellow Springs Ohio Health Care Clinic was Razed last week. Yellow Springs Dental Care and The Friends Care Center mourn the loss of our neighbor in providing quality care for Yellow Springs and environs. Healthcare Reform, Healthcare access. As our national debate on healthcare continues, there can be no doubt that healthcare will be less available in Yellow Springs because of this tragedy. We are all a little bit poorer for the loss of this Yellow Springs health facility.
Dental Spa of New York
If you live in Brooklyn and you aren't going to see Dr. Frank at the Dental Spa of New York on 5th Ave you're really missing out. Have an espresso or relaxing parafin hand wax while you wait.
Sent from a magical box of wonder.
Early Morning Snaps
A few seconds to spare on my way to the bus stop yesterday morning and I snapped this just a few steps from my home, at the side of the walkway. Bright autumn colours caught my attention.
This is my dentist. I always sit beneath the sign on the little corner of bricks with my head bowed whilst I wait for them to open at 9.
This is the view from my Dentist's garden, across Yarm Lane in Stockton-on-Tees to where the Lord's Taverners (or just The Lord's) stood. The former mansion was knocked down recently, and I've read there is a planning application in at the Council for an Aldi to be built there.
If you look into the distance on the shot, you will see that old terraced housing, which was mainly occupied by Asian families, are emptying and are being boarded up. They look like they are the next buildings to go.
Such a different view than I am used to.
The Wisdom of Teeth
Like most people, I don’t much like going to the dentist. Not that I don’t like my dentist, mind you; she’s very professional, incredibly nice, and unlike most in her line of work these days, she’s averse to doing anything unnecessary, which is as good for my mental health as it is for my wallet.
Still, small comfort; going to the dentist only gets worse the older I get. In most other areas, I get more comfortable and less fearful with experience, but stepping into that particular office, I regress to age 10. Because all of a sudden, a person you don’t really know – not intimately enough, at any rate, to have any idea what evil thoughts might lurk behind the easy smile – is about to rummage around inside your mouth with lots of very sharp instruments.
(Anyone who has seen Dustin Hoffmann tortured in The Marathon Man, is all too aware of what a dentist could really get up to if they get pissed off)
Now, if you’re really unlucky, you’ll need a root canal or have to get your wisdom teeth out, as I did today. I’ve had two done before. Both times were fine; it was over quickly and there was little bleeding. For a week, it felt felt sore and generally weird, since there was suddenly a lot more undeveloped real estate in my mouth, but overall, not bad. Now my luck has turned, so this time, we had to really dig. Oh, joy.
(Wisdom teeth, by the way, are supposed to come in later, but often can’t quite find the proper way out and end up crashing into other teeth or finding a sensitive nerve end to rub against while they start to rot and fester. Wisdom teeth, in other words, are actually pretty fucking stupid.)
Anyway: The sounds are the worst. Anaesthesia is at worst a prick and a moment of pain as the fluid enters the gum flesh; you never feel the drill unless you’re really unlucky. But the sounds; good God, the sounds! Is there anything worse than the insistent whine of a drill as it reverberates not only off the walls, but inside your very skull? The deepening sound of the same drill as it slows down upon meeting resistance, going further and further in, and that vague, detached sense of your dentist applying yet more pressure?
Of course, you also have the after-effects of the painkillers to contend with; hours of gradually regaining feeling in your gums and your lips (If you get stuff done in the front, wave good-bye to feeling your nose as well.) For about two hours, you walk around with a half-moronic expression, drooling from the corner of your mouth and spilling whatever you’re drinking on yourself because you can’t feel if the cup actually is touching your lips or not. (All you need is a t-shirt saying “Where’s the birth certificate?” to complete the makeover.) After my last appointment with the dentist, I stupidly went for a swim afterwards, and ended up swallowing several pints of pool water (it just sort of…seeped in), which was every bit as pleasant as you would think.
But the worst thing, I think, is that as you get older, you stop getting any sort of credit or reward for toughing it out, which strikes me as most unfair. As a child, you’d get a plastic toy or at least a compliment for being brave! But as an adult, all you get is a potentially traumatic experience that you even have to pay for. I ask you, my friends: Where is the justice? See, the kid in me still wants one of those plastic toys, but so do I, damnit! Because deep down, the adult me suspects that the sum total of those whirring and breaking sounds, the numb teeth, the fatigued jaw and all the rest; all those horrors would largely be ameliorated by having a blue plastic jet fighter in my hand on my way home. Seriously, doc: can’t you just add one to my bill and let me pretend?
MisDiagnosis!
What are the chances your next health issue will be misdiagnosed? Will the answer surprise you? See http://herbholist.posterous.com/misdiagnosis to see how easily a life threatening issue can be mistakenly diagnosed.
MisDiagnosis!
FCC Disclosure:
JBNI, the producer of Bioprin, the only known 100% natural pain reliever that's more effective than some chemotherapy agents -- tested by Dana Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School is also the producer of this blog.
We've all seen those exciting House or Home Dr. TV Shows. But have you ever wondered how likely it is to get a real misdiagnosis on your own health condition?
You could, one day, be enjoying your hamburger. Then notice that your next bite is slightly off. You swallow fine and you bite down again to confirm that your teeth suddenly don't fit together perfectly.
You wonder if it's been this way for a while and you just now noticed it.
So, a couple of days later, you work your way into the dentist's chair. The dental assistant preps novacaine. Your trusted family doctor walks in, picks up the needle, gets ready to file down two teeth, then reschedules. He recommends that you go see a neurologist for, "grins and giggles."
Honestly, when does a dentist ever do anything for grins and giggles?
So, now totally paranoid and frazzled, you walk into an office with the latest NES, stadium size flat-screen HD TVs, and a receptionist who looks like the girl from either the latest Bond movie or the one just before that.
42 minutes, and a palm size sweat mark on the back of your leather seat later, A tall bald man in a white coat walks out. He greets you and asks you if you've noticed any facial twitching. "No?"
"On which side is the misfit tooth?" He asks, totally disinterested.
"Left." You say, feeling like you're imposing on the man you're about to pay dearly.
"Any numbness on your right hand or foot?" he continues, bored out of his mind.
You start saying no but before you pump out that "ohhhh" sound, you realize that the tip of your pinky finger on your right hand is tingley.
The tall bald man in the white coat finally shows a bit of interest and tells you to stick out your tongue.
"Stick it straight out," he says.
You do. But you didn't. He directs you toward the mirror and you notice that your tongue is leaning to the left.
He explains, "You may have had a transient ischemic attack. The left brain controls the left side of the head but the right side of the body. The left side of your tongue and your right pinky finger may have suffered slight paralysis. That would explain why your tongue leans to the left. The muscles on the right side of your tongue are pushing harder than the left. This means you've probably had a minor stroke.
It's a good thing your dentist sent you to see me. A minor tremmor often means that a major stroke is looming over the horizon. If the "big one" does happen, it happens within about a week. When did you say you first noticed your teeth weren't fitting?"
Questions? Ask "J!" The JBNI Scientists and Doctors Team.
For the most cutting health, beauty, and fitness stories, welcome to http://herbholist.com Seriously.
