Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Toofies and Waterworks

As a prelude to my dental appointment last week, I was thinking back to my first dentist in Montreal: Dr Cloutier, probably in 1955.  It was a one-person operation. You'd walk it, sit in the chair; he examined your teeth, and started to drill – without freezing, may I add. That's the way that it was. I was 7, and they were baby teeth, and I don't remember the process being unduly torturous. Perhaps time has been merciful and mitigated my memory.

Nowadays they are major businesses. This one involved the dentist plus 6 others as far as I could tell. There were sometimes two at the main desk – one to take your money, and one to pick you up off the floor. Let's say that the bill was flabbergasting.

I must say that it was painless, but after an hour and a half in that chair my old body was feeling less than happy, let me tell ya. I had to halt the proceeding and get up to stretch. Shortly thereafter, I had to suspend work again while I left the dentist and technician sitting in the room for a few moments whilst I visited the loo.

My body puzzles me and drives me to distraction. I took the first appointment: 8am. Knowing my body. I refrained from drinking all night, I didn't have my morning coffee despite getting up two hours earlier. I had gotten up twice during the night, and then I went twice before going to the dentist. When I got there I went again, just for good measure.

I thought that there wouldn't be a drop of water left in me after more than 12  hours without fluids, but after 90 minutes in the chair, I felt ready to burst. You would think that it might have just been my mind playing tricks on me at that point, but I am telling you that it was pretty well a gusher and not just the few paltry drops that I had been expecting. Where all of that came from after all of those hours of depriving myself of fluids is beyond me.

But listen to this: I went again as soon as I got home, not much more than a half hour later. I'm sorry, but I have to utter a hearty and perplexed WTF? right about now.

It had been a fairly major appointment. After not visiting a dentist for two and a half, mostly COVID years, I had developed 4 cavities around old fillings, and I had to also deal with the chipped tooth that I had lived with for more that three years. Amazingly, there wasn't a cavity in that tooth, which is what I had been most concerned about.

In future, I will break it up into two appointments should I ever again require than much work. But I shouldn't have this happen again once I get back to regular checkups, for this amount of maintenance is unusual for me, Thank goodness.

Now, I feel that I must work one more thing into this post that is related in an odd way.

I have been wearing my iWatch to bed on most nights for the two-and-a -half months that I have had it primarily in order to use a sleep app. I don't need to do this, for I am not too stupid to figure out how many hours that I have slept. But it also tracks heart beat and how much it drops as well as sleep rhythm. Those two things – resting heart rate and sleep rhythm – may be the same thing. I am not sure right now, and it doesn't matter.

To get to the point, an hour or so after my appointment, I dropped Sue off briefly so she could make an appointment with her hairdresser. While she was inside, I checked my sleep app, or maybe it sent me a message. I can't remember which.

Guess what?

Since I had been all but stationary in the dental chair for a protracted period of time, the app had added the two hours to my sleep time. That is despite the fact that I had gotten up two hours prior to the appointment and then driven the office. 

And that's all I have to say about that. I thought it might tickle you, however.


19 comments:

William Kendall said...

My childhood dentist was also the dentist for the Leafs.

Barbara Rogers said...

Well, it should ease your mind that you have healthy kidneys!

Ed said...

I've often wondered how those sleep apps work. I assumed your heart rate would have something to do with it as well as being motionless. But I can't imagine your heart rate was all that slow while being worked on at a dentist!

DJan said...

I sometimes have that happen to me, when I cannot seem to stop the kidneys from working overtime. Other times I wonder why I'm needing to pee less often. No way I can figure it out. I really don't like going to the dentist myself! :-)

Blondi Blathers said...

Scott and I learned the hard way that frequent dental visits are less of an ordeal than not going for years and having to make up for it. Mine yesterday for a cleaning and check took only 20 minutes ... why, it was almost a treat! Well not quite, but in comparison to the appointments I kept only once a year or less.
Yesterday for the first time I wore one ear bud and listened to an interview while they worked in my mouth, and that made a difference too. Kept my focus off what was going on in there, but I could still hear when the assistant said "You can close" in order to suction out the water they were using.

Hope all that "draining" doesn't mean there's something not working right.

-Kate

Karen said...

I always feel like I've been in a vigorous wrestling match after visits to the dentist and hygienist. A few weeks ago it felt like she was trying to make me stand on my head. Don't mind dental visits. Helps that I haven't had any cavities in years and years.

Margaret said...

My bladder goes overactive when I'm nervous. Resting heart rate isn't the same as sleep, I don't think. But your app thought you were taking a nap! I used to have an app on my cell phone that tracked my sleep when I put it under my pillow. However, I decided that I didn't want to know! If the phone said I'd had a restless night, I felt tired. Did I talk myself into that? A self-fulfilling prophecy?

DrumMajor said...

Are you SURE you're not accidentally taking a diuretic pill, thinking it's a pill for something else? That's alot of bladder busting after the drought-inducing preparation. Linda in Kansas

Anvilcloud said...

@Drummajo: Pretty sure. I know, it's rather stunning. I was flabbergasted.

Mara said...

Mornings seem to be worse than afternoons for me. So I hear you.

Mage said...

My new dentists just send newsletters.

PipeTobacco said...

The bladder filling even without drinking is pretty normal for all of us in the morning. It is because more blood is shunted to the kidneys while resting the night before and the kidneys will produce more urine via the increased blood flow. Also as we become older the elasticity of our bladder decreases somewhat and this lesser expansive ability makes the micturition reflex more frequent.

PipeTobacco

The Furry Gnome said...

I won't even start to tell you about peeing when you're paralyzed, but have you had your prostate checked?

Anvilcloud said...

@Furry. Yes, even got TURPed, Believe it or not, it is much better than before.

Anvilcloud said...

@Mage. Well that's much better than actually going in. 😉

Jenn Jilks said...

JB has had this for years. He's up 2, 3 or 4 times a night. Every night.
I'm so sorry you had all this. Take care.
We're resting after navigating the doctor vs. pharmacy for hours today.

Tabor said...

Some illnesses cause more urination and you might want to check that with your doctor.I went ot the entist as crown had come loose. My insurance covered only a part of it. That bill was a surrised. Oue Dental group even advertises on TVV!!

Kay said...

I use my Fitbit to record my sleep. Would you believe Art uses a Fitbit on one wrist and the iWatch on the other? He's crazy sometimes.

Thank you for telling us about your bladder problem. I have such a problem with that. When we took trips to Japan, they used to always have the bus make bathroom stops every hour. I'm worried about our Scandinavian tour we have for next year (it's been postponed twice and paid for). I hope they make hourly stops too... unless it has to be postponed again.

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