Dental Date, Gum Charting, and Tylenol

Note to self: if you feel the need to make a “healthier” version of a rice krispy treat using blueberry granola with flax, REFRAIN. It will most certainly not be the same, and you will instead find yourself eating half a bag of mini-marshmallows to get that dessert-taste that you wanted.

Also, whatever you do, do NOT wait 3 years between dentist visits. Unless you want to experience pain, torture, bleeding, and embarrassment. Trust me on this.

So yesterday, John and I had a little “dental date.” I know, we are so exciting. I made the appointment for my cleaning at the same time as his, to give myself a little extra motivation to actually GO to my appointment. We get there, and are seated in adjoining chairs that are basically divided by a partition of sorts….meaning, we can still basically see and hear what’s going on with each other. My sweet little hygienist, Martha, says, “oh, you’re pregnant! Did you know that your gums bleed more, and are more sensitive when you’re pregnant?” I’m thinking, GREAT…..if my gums bleed a lot, yet another thing I can blame on the pregnancy! (As opposed to my poor flossing habits & love of candy).

Since I haven’t been in (okay, let’s be honest) 3 years, I didn’t know that they now do a thing called “gum charting.” Where they basically assign a number to each tooth & gum, based on it’s health. Uh-oh. Sweet Martha tells me that 1’s-3’s are great, 4’s are “reversible damage”, and 5’s & 6’s are stank gums…..(okay, she obviously didn’t say stank gums, but I really wish she had). Basically 5’s and 6’s=GUM DISEASE….I start praying.

We begin the charting, which involves poking each of my gums with that scrape-y thing I hate, and CALLING OUT the numbers to a lady who’s writing them down. Excuse me? I’m sorry. Is it really necessary to call out my numbers, with my husband sitting right there?! He, of the perfect teeth and gums, no cavities, and all 1’s and 2’s? Goody-goody. And I just know he is sitting there listening to my numbers, which was confirmed to me later when he said, “I was totally sitting there listening to your numbers.”

And okay, my numbers weren’t bad….no 5’s or 6’s, so I don’t have gum disease, but I did absolutely get the lecture on flossing…and on coming to the dentist every 6 months. Which I am a hard-core, faithful believer in at this point. ‘Cause it’s not a good thing when Sweet Martha tells you that “you’re gonna want to take some Tylenol when you get home tonight.”