Ode to the Dentist

To some of you the dentist is a four letter word and I bet you shudder at the mention of it. Right? Well not me. I happen to love my dentist! No really, I do! My dentist rocks! He has all the fancy new equipment and he's just so gosh-darn nice, a winning combination in my book.

Confession - I happen to have the worst teeth in the world, okay - maybe not the worst, but at least second to the worst and over the years I have been to my fair share of dentist appointments, too many to count. I've probably had cavities in 75% of my teeth and numerous problems with the other 25%. I've had a bunch of retainers, which was fun because I got to pick the color I wanted for each one. My last retainer was a lady bug - cute! Then of course, I had to wear braces. I bet you're thinking - come on, that's normal, lots of people have to wear braces - um . . . yeah, but of those people how many of them had to wear braces TWICE! - ha! got ya there, didn't I? I've had fillings and crowns and all of that other crap and - oh this is funny - now that I think about it, I remember when I was little, thinking that the dentist was my babysitter. When my mom needed her weekly break, she'd drop all 6 of us off at the dentist. (She did this with other professionals too - don't even get me started on the piano teacher! Ha! I'll have to save that for another time. ps - I'm totally laughing at all the funny things to put in future piano teacher post right now. Good times!) Needless to say, I spent an abnormal amount of time at the dentist office - it's okay though, I think they liked me, I was super tuff and almost never cried and I usually held my own spit sucker thingy just because I thought it was fun. Oh, and I wasn't shy to tell the dentist when he had boogers, which was the case almost every visit. I really was tuff! In fact, I'm pretty sure I've only ever cried once at a dentist appointment (the single tear doesn't count okay) I was in high school and my dentist, aka my babysitter, aka the booger dentist, that I was already used to decided to move away, so my mom took me to this new guy. The new dentist was old and rather gruff and he would not stop the drilling when I raised my left hand (like they tell you to do) he just kept going until he finally saw the tears streaming down my face. Ouch! Since I no longer needed a babysitter, I did not return to that dentist. Then there was this one time - a few months after I started at my first real job and I thought I was the coolest because I had my own dental insurance, not that I needed it because I had already fixed every single problem I could ever have with my teeth in the first 18 years of my life. I walked in there, the adult that I was, and I sat down with the dentist and explained how I would really like to fix the teeny-tiny little space between these two teeth (I'm pointing at my teeth right now, you just can't see). He then looked at me like I was a crazy person and said How about if we fix your cavities first, hmm? I felt like an idiot after that.

Now we are to my favorite dentist, Dr. Baird, I will forever and always go to Dr. Baird even if he moves away - I will follow him, because he's that good! The first time I went to Dr. Baird I got a simple procedure done - easy peasy, he was very gentle and considerate and he was even grateful when I pointed out that he mistakenly put Don McLean's song Vincent (Starry Starry Night) on his mixed Christmas album (because after all - contrary to what some people may think - it's not a Christmas song). That night I received a phone call from Dr. Baird - he just wanted to check on me to make sure I was feeling okay and to remind me to take some Advil. How freakin' nice is that?!! I've been hooked ever since. :)

(This is Dr. Baird. Hello Dr. Baird - yes, I'm flossing right now, I promise.)

www.drbaird.com