|
|
|
teeth cleaning, 2015
Thursday, March 12 2015
Since giving up my habit of drinking alcohol every blessed night, I've had trouble getting to sleep, particularly on days of heavy caffeine intake. So I've added a Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) to my pharmaceutical armory. One can't take it too often or it loses its effectiveness, but I take it every third or fourth day, usually in large amounts to ensure a solid sleep. Last night I'd taken 75 milligrams (three tablets) and was still drowsy and desirous of sleep this morning. But eventually I pried myself out of bed and got my day going. I was still groggy at 12:35pm when I drove off to West Hurley to get my teeth cleaned at the dental office near Hurley Ridge Market. I later learned that Diphenhydramine has a half life of eight hours, meaning that I still had more than a tablet's worth of it active in my system some twelve hours later.
The teeth cleaning went about as well as they usually go, even though it had been almost two years since my last one. The hygienist scraped at the calculus, most of which seemed to be around the roots of my incisors. My gums are most sensitive around those teeth (particularly the gaps between the two front teeth in the bottom and top), so I don't floss and poke there as much as I should. That doesn't mean that it feels any better to have a stranger doing it, but she had to do what she had to do. I'm usually not as aware of the resulting bleeding as I was today, but I kept noticing the blood on the hygienist's dental pick and on the wads of absorbent material she kept wiping on my gums. Despite all that, she didn't lecture me about the state of my gums; evidently I'm doing something right. Mind you, I don't manage to brush my teeth every day (I usually only do it before going into town), and I rarely floss. But my eating habits are unusually tooth-friendly: I don't drink sweetened beverages and I avoid almost all forms of dessert.
This is not to say all is well in my mouth. One of the cusps of the top-right molar nearest the wisdom tooth broke off from a large filling back in the autumn, and the hygienist said I will probably need a crown for that tooth, though she said the dentist will be able to make it for me on site using a CNC router on a small block of porcelain, a dental technology I'd never heard of.
On the way home, I stopped at the West Hurley Park to run the dogs (who'd been waiting in the car during my tooth cleaning). There was still too much snow on the ballfields for comfortable walking, so we didn't stay long. The day was nice and sunny, though it was much colder than yesterday and there was also a strong wind at times. But I'd dressed optimistically, as though spring had finally arrived. I wasn't wearing a jacket but just a teeshirt beneath a long-sleeved shirt.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?150312 feedback
previous | next |
