Dental Experiment

Yesterday I called a dentist to schedule appointments for me and my daughter. I was flying blind; I just picked one that was in a nearby building and called. Finding a dentist in our network using the online locator was as far as I took the research. I figured that experiential research would be more effective.

I scheduled my appointment for today and my daughter's for next week. That way, I will be the guinea pig, and neither my daughter nor my wife will be subjected to a dental experience that I don't find satisfactory.

There is one problem with this, however: I HAVE TO GO TO THE DENTIST TODAY!

I hate the going to the dentist! I never felt this way as a kid, but as an adult, my own procrastinatory habits caused me to put it off and put it off. As you know, the longer you put it off, the worse it is when you go. So when I finally went to the dentist for the first time since. High school back in 2004, the hygienist, sighed, said, "bear with me," grabbed her metal-scraping-pointy-things, and proceeded with the bloody, painful work.

From that point to now, my procrastination is bolstered by that extremely painful experience. I promised myself that I'd floss every day, that I'd go to the dentist every six months, that I'd never let it happen again. But it has happened again. I left my job and had no insurance for a while. When I got a job in CT in 2006, the procrastination began again. I didn't go to the dentist again until fall of 2007, when I was about to lose my I insurance again. The experience was horrifically similar.

And now, it is 2010, and I have no one to blame but myself for the misery I am about to endure (how Catholic is that?). But I'll take my medicine just to make sure that my punkin's first dental experience doesn't traumatize her too much. Who knows? Maybe I'll get an appointment for six months from now like I'm supposed to. Maybe I'll floss a little more too!