I love going to the dentist.

I sat in the dentist chair yesterday. I was prepared, prepped and then prodded for two hours. Yes, I have horrible teeth. The fact that I like sugar a lot does not help. So while I was getting a crown and a large cavity filled, I could not help but think that the dental procedures have not changed near enough in all the years I have lay in the dental chairs.

Look at everything else that has changed. Why can't dental procedures catch up? They are still behind the times.

I would think that a laser of some sort would be a nice improvement. It could pick out all the problems, go in the mouth and fix it all up. Twenty minutes later...done!

No, now we still have to suffer though drool running down our face while the assistant tries sucking the spit with the spit sucker and shoving large cylinder shaped cotton in every crevasse but not removing the taste from your tongue of the bad clove tasting liquid that the chemists think cover the other bad taste from the shots injected into the gums and the roof of your mouth. Those things are not even the worst part! The worst is the sound of the horrible drill, drilling into your teeth and the sound echoing in your ears. No one should really ever be awake to hear the kind of sound a drill makes as it drills into your teeth.

My 99 year old grandmother once told me that when she goes to the dentist she does not get shots to get numb, she never has. They just drill or pull the tooth. While she was telling me this I suddenly noticed the large gaps in her smile. No wonder she had so few teeth in her mouth. If given the choice, I think a quick painful pull would be better than a long horrific drilling. Yikes!

Luckily dental procedures have progressed far enough so that we can get numb and not feel it. Some people just go to the dentist so they can have an excuse to get numb. My husband has never minded the dentist for that reason. The laughing gas is his addiction. It is his legal drug. Personally I have never used it so I do not know what it feels like, but I have seen it's effects.

My son had to get three teeth pulled the other day. He tends to be a little like his Aunt, dramatic about pain, so I always let the dentist give him the gas. Once that gas was flowing into my sons nostrils he continued to breathe deep. In with the deep breath...hold. Out with the deep breath...hold. This went on for a few minutes until his eyes were good and glazed. That is when he turned to me in his drug induced voice and said, " I's reelly do't want fhree teefh pfuled". Hmm. I think he might be taking after his father.

Although I do wonder why some chemist has not found a drug that numbs your mouth and then takes the numb immediately away after the procedure is done?It would be nice not to be on a soup diet for the rest of the day for fear of biting a large hole into the side of your cheek. It would also be nice not to have Novocain mouth and smile for hours after the dental procedure.

I guess I should just count my blessings...I don't have a gap filled toothless smile!