Ugly Things Ahead

What I'm listening to: Fiona Apple - Paper Bag
I've liked this song for a long time. I used to listen it on loop 239843247 times on the bus, while working, running laps outside, to try to get to sleep, etc, and especially at the gym. It has that line that a lot of people love and it's motivational. Did I ever end up sending this to you, Intensecure? I can't remember, but here it is for everybody to download.

I can tell this is going to be a long post already. Sometimes I wonder whether I should just do a voice post instead, but I'm not really good at speaking. *Deep breath*
I hope you're reading this, ES!

I just got back from my consultation with the specialist (I'm not getting paid for this) who is going to remove my wisdom teeth, all four at the same time. I got there very early, as usual, and had to fill out two forms, so it wasn't too bad. Waited for a bit and had to go in to do a panoramic x-ray. I think I already did one not too long ago, maybe October, but I didn't have time to go get it from my cousin's office, so I figured I'd get a new updated one done, just in case. Nothing exciting, I just had to take off all jewelry and metal items, wear the lead armour which is a little heavy, put my chin in the space, and bite on a piece of plastic. Went back to the waiting room, which is beautifully furnished. Picture a nice hotel lobby or Troy/McNamara firm in Nip/Tuck. There were a number of rooms and they were very bright and spacious. They were well equipped with a computer, a very organized set of tools in cupboards and drawers, and a large flat screen television, but it just happened that the computer wasn't connecting properly to it to show me my x-ray today. It's fine because I've seen it before and I was going to bring my camera to take a picture, but I probably wouldn't have done it anyways. The doctor had a lot of diplomas and certification documents framed on the wall. All of it was very impressive and he lived up to it in person, too. Dr. Freilich was patient and thorough when asking me questions and explaining all the details, risks, outcomes, additional medications, whether there were any contraindications of the anesthesia with my medications, reports I needed to submit and why I need it done at all. He wants me to come in only when a professional anesthesiologist is working because of my medications and to be extra careful. Very considerate and observant as he noticed my tracheotomy and asked appropriate questions to go along with concerns about head and neck fractures.

"Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is the specialty of dentistry that treats surgical problems of the mouth, jaws, teeth, gums, face, head and neck. Practitioners of this specialty graduate from accredited dental schools ("Doctor of Dental Surgery" or "Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry" degrees), and then complete hospital-based surgical residency training programs that range from 4 to 6 years to complete. To be licensed in Canada as an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, practitioners must pass a credentialing examination that is administered by the Royal College of Dentists of Canada, and be eligible for licensure by their provincial College.

Dentists who refer to themselves as "Dental Surgeons" are General Dentists, and are not specialists in any aspect of dentistry."

The doctor also wanted me to either get a blood test done, which as you may recall I did not too long ago, so he wanted me to give him a copy. I had to pay at the front desk and my dad had given me $100 at the last minute as an afterthought this morning, but I ended up having to chip in $60. I'm lucky that I keep a decent amount of cash on me, because the consultation on its own was $100 and the x-ray was an extra $60. I got the appropriate receipts and hopefully we can get reimbursed from the insurance that my dad's company pays for. I had to sign a release of information form, so that the receptionist could fax it to my GP to get the blood test results. I insisted on sitting there to watch her do it, I'm not sure why. It took quite a while, but all the paperwork and the faxing were completed properly.

This is where the fun begins. While waiting for the fax to go through, it suddenly occurred to me that I should make a trip to the GP's on the way home. Her original receptionist was AWOL, while her husband the pharmacist was still working at his pharmacy, but she was replaced by a younger girl, who was...kind of difficult to deal with. I arrived and it was still that girl. I asked if they received the fax and they did, not too long ago. I was a bit worried that I might show up after she already faxed in my blood report, so I'd seem very pushy. That wasn't the case today. She was talking on the phone, for a long time. When the doctor came out to make an appointment for a patient, she hung up and I told them what I needed done. My GP gave her approval and told her to pull it from my file. After a long search, she still couldn't find my file. My GP continued with her appointment, so I kept waiting as she looked for it until my GP came out to sort something out again. It turned out that the file was actually with my GP, because she had to make a CT appointment for me/my head. She thought it was strange to use the one from February and I reminded her, so we got out the proper one done in April. My GP left again, telling her to fax it. She said she'd do it right in front of me. Of course, I wouldn't have left if she didn't. She puts it in the fax machine and we wait forever. I had a feeling she dialed their own fax number, which she did. *sigh* I'm glad that I had a couple of the Dr. Freilich's business cards in my pocket, which had their fax number on it. I kept standing there until it went through, but halfway through, she told me I could leave. I waited for it to go all the way through, but thinking back, I'm not exactly sure if it was my report at all. She might have faxed the requisition from the specialists' back to them. I got home and gave them both a call, but no one picked up, presumably because they had gotten off work or were close to being done for the day so they didn't want to have to deal with a call that might make them stay a few minutes later.

Dr. Freilich had mentioned getting a night guard for my teeth, because I had said that my jaws hurt, either from the way the wisdom teeth are growing in horizontally because there isn't enough space, from grinding/clenching my teeth at night or both. I already have one, but I don't wear it as often as I should, because I have enough trouble getting to sleep as it is. In case you've never seen one or you're going to get one, and it seems like there is an increasing number of people who need them, I'm making this post as a product review.


I took a picture of all of these things that I had to make a mould for. I didn't include my retainers because I've probably lost them. I didn't actually need them, but an overenthusiastic orthodontist made me get them. She wasn't nice at all and her personality wasn't the greatest, so I really didn't like her. I've made a post about the trays on the left that I had to get for the bleaching process. I got my first night guard, which is on the right, but I never really wore it because it's very uncomfortable. It had the same yellow case.

As I've already said, it's not comfortable enough to allow me to sleep, but it's an improvement. It's glossy on the underside as my cousin didn't have to adjust it by shaving pieces of it off, because it fit quite well. The colour is a lot nicer, too.

It's difficult to really tell, but this is the inside of it where I fit it on to my top set of teeth. I have to immerse it in hot water for before I put it on, because it softens it up a bit. The grooves get to be sort of gummy, which isn't the right word, but it's the first one that comes to mind. It has a plastic taste to it that almost seems like a synthetic fruit flavour.

I think it's a bit thinner than before and felt as comfortable as something like this could get for the first few times I wore it, but that feeling passes pretty quickly. After a night of wearing it, my teeth felt very different and foreign when chewing. I think it would have been more effective than my retainers if they shifted the grooves around a bit, but that's very difficult to perfect. When I got sick of using it, I went back to using those trays for bleaching, but that was bothering me a lot last night, so I left them next to the abandoned night guard on the desk beside my bed. Imagine wearing that in the daytime as well, like I was told to. I guess it could be used to prevent overeating sheerly out of boredom.