The One About Me Dreading My Dentist Appointment

I'm not afraid of the dentist like so many people I know. The needles, the drills, I'm used to it all. I've had a colored dental past.

(image found via Google Image search for "scary dentist")

• 4th Grade I had my first tooth extraction. I had a cone shaped tooth growing out of the roof of my mouth. Yes, the roof. I can still feel a little bump from the scar the extraction left. My parents used to joke that I was great at eating corn on the cob b/c of it. I don't know why it grew through the roof (right in the middle). They told me I had an extra tooth and that's where it decided to come out. So I'm a freak, I already knew that.

• 6th Grade - 8th Grade I had braces, but just on my top teeth. Horrid awful braces, complete with head gear. No, there are no pictures to show for you to laugh at. I barely ever wore it. I NEVER wore it in the light of day, even though I was supposed to 24-7 according to my evil (and yes, he was EVIL!) orthodontist. Funny thing is I could have probably counted on my fingers and toes the amount of times I even wore it to sleep. Yet whenever I went for a check up Dr. Evil commented on how great it was working.
  
  
• Hmmm...I'm drawing a blank but I know I've had some more teeth pulled (besides my wisdom teeth which I'll get to in a minute).
  
  
• I have "soft teeth" whatever that means. I know what it means - no matter how well I brush and floss I have cavities in almost every. single. tooth. (don't judge me, I do brush and floss!) Yep. Let me count them now. I can feel at least 11 filling in my teeth. Oh and a bridge so it must have been a filling at one time and is now a fake tooth. Wait I have two fake teeth. Only one of them is included in the "bridge."
  
  
• Root canals. I've had two. Or is it three? Anyway, I've had a couple (or a few). And they don't hurt. What I mean is the pain before getting the root canal is what hurts, not the actual procedure itself.
  
  
• My wisdom teeth. Oh those nasty nasty nasty things. I had my first one, which was partially impacted, extracted in 2001. The surgeon hit a nerve while taking it out and I was partially paralyzed on the left side of my face for two weeks. It's the reason you have to sign all of those forms before you get your wisdom teeth taken out, in case you've never read them. That way when your face is paralyzed you can't blame or sue them. I still blame him. Shitty shitty surgeon.
  
  
• I waited as long as physically possible to get my last three wisdom teeth taken out. It happened in 2006. This time I went to an awesome surgeon. They had to put me under b/c the teeth were so impacted. They didn't hit any nerves, but they did give me heavy duty pain drugs. Those drugs made me violently ill. I guess percosets are narcotics and since I had never introduced my body to narcotics, it rejected them. Throwing up, a lot, after getting three teeth pulled is NOT fun.
  
  
• Bridge work. I can't remember when I first had this done. But it was before meeting SH so it was a while ago. I don't really remember much of this, except for the pain of the bill. And last year the pain I started to get in my teeth surrounding the bridge. I had to have another root canal, another filling and the bridge repaired which hurt my bank account A LOT and is still hurting my bank account.
  

So that leads me to my dread.
It's not that I'm worried about the pain of having work done on my mouth. I've been there, done that many times.
I'm worried that when I go for my check up they are going to tell me something else is horribly wrong and my bank account is going to suffer again. For serious, I am DROWNING in dental bills and I just cannot take on another one. I cannot. Yes, I have dental insurance. But it covers damn near nothing.
I'm worried b/c I'm feeling pain AGAIN right around the area where I've had the fillings, root canals and bridge work. If they tell me I need to get this replaced/repaired again I might will cry.
Please send good checkup vibes my way!