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Because our old dentist retired and the people who took over lack specialized skills.

FIRST: Remember a few years back a Texas dentist was jailed for using/selling the anesthetic and defrauding Medicare? That was Jess' first dentist. He'd strap the kids into the chair and drill, baby, drill, without any pretense of anesthetic. He even tried to sue when her mother punched him cold. But she doesn't go to ANY dentist without me present the first visit.

SECOND: Lidocaine is worthless on her. May as well just drill and save the pain of the shot. Septicaine works a bit, and apparently some newer stuff is more potent, but it requires a dentist who can safely do a nerve block.

And remember, she's non-responsive or allergic to most narcotics. N2O works a bit, but her body temperature plummets.

Now let's talk about me:

Severe fever when I was an infant affected development. All my adult molars came through with four cusps and raw dentin in the middle. They all had to be pre-emptively filled. I've had ONE cavity otherwise. My teeth are strong, just malformed. This was after being a 10 week preemie, and then gastroenteritis and fever, and the second time the docs said I would probably die, and be small, sickly and weak if I did survive.

Fuck you, Doc, don't tell me how to live my life. And now you know why I've spent my entire life as a raging, contradictory asshole. It's a survival trait.

But I digress. TWELVE molars all filled, and fillings break down over time.

I have one that got re-filled, then broke again, and a USAF colonel dentist fixed that one in 1987, using me as a training exercise for a captain.

For whatever reason, DoD and Tricare won't pay for crowns. They'll cover the filling part, the crown is out of pocket. So he sank 5 stainless pins into the tooth and constructed an amalgam crown. It is still there.

Civilian dentist in the early 90s said it was about to fail. Nope. 2008, Army contract "On Site Dentist," the Butchers of Bayonne, who were ripping teeth out of troops before deployment insisted it was abcessed and wanted to pull it. I went to my civilian (former Navy) dentist who signed off it was just fine. And it still is. 38 years and counting. The dentist deserves a post-retirement AF Commendation Medal just for that tooth alone.

Three other molars had the fillings failed and are crowned, and eventually they all will be, but I insist that masterpiece will be the last one.

Oh, and Lidocaine is worthless on me, too. Just drill and get it over with. Septicaine works pretty well, though.

The new dentist is VERY impressive. We explained our needs, I escorted Jess in. They listened to her needs and wrote notes. They took Xrays quickly, including a pan, explained step by step what they were doing, took detailed photos.

I got a far better cleaning than the previous take-overs did. And it looks like I'll be getting four more crowns over the next year (because I don't want to do them all at once).

They were able to talk to Jess with her biology degree on the technical details of the anesthetics they use, and even checked the tooth polish was gluten free before finishing up.

They managed to make her comfortable. That by itself is an accomplishment.

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