It sounds a lot worse that it was. Because of my dental phobia, it’s been a while since I have had a good, professional cleaning. My hygienist wanted to do a full mouth debridement so that my oral hygiene could be assessed properly. The procedure involved blasting the crude (I know there is a technical term, but I like “crude” better) off my teeth with a high pressure water pik. There was a little bit of scraping, but on the whole, the procedure was no big deal. I go back in two weeks for the full cleaning and assessment of my gum health.

You know, now that I am facing this monster head on, I can’t even remember why I was so scared. I guess I just spent so much time thinking about how awful my childhood dentist was that I built up this “idea” of how bad everything would be. The reality is far more bland. I go in, they work on my teeth, I leave. There is no pain or drama.

Interestingly, now that I have spent so much time (and money) on my pearly whites, I am almost obsessive about keeping them healthy. I suppose that’s a good side effect.