I hadn't been to to a dentist since I had my braces off, about um, 5 years I think? Anyway, I went to my dad's dentist. Really nice office, really great, professional staff. Expensive, but I could deal with that. What I could not deal with is the paternal attitude of the dentist. Not even just condescending. Like, refusing to give me a cleaning until "we" dealt with my gum disease (I don't floss, bad Steph). Or deciding that he didn't like the work that my old dentist did so he was going to redo it. Didn't discuss it with me, just wrote it down on the chart, and I didn't find out until I was talking with the financial person. That pissed me off. I haven't been back.

I need to go back soon for a cleaning and lecture about how we need to go back in time and remove my wisdom teeth several years ago.

I can't fault any of my past dentists for a couple of bad experiences, but one hygienist when I was a kid pulled a loose but still live molar after being specifically told to leave it alone. (Dustin Hoffman was right to fear Laurence Olivier!) If something like that happened at 30 instead of 10, I suspect we'd have both been missing teeth.

My poor daughter is going to have to have a couple of teeth pulled and then start orthodontics, I fear a dental phobia may be in the making.

That's definitely no fun. I had two pulled and then braces. The braces were less fun. They were very uncomfortable when the were first put on. But I think braces have gotten a lot easier in the intervening years.

There is also going to be headgear, but thankfully only at night.

Gud, how old is she, now? Are all her permanent teeth in? It seems early for othrodontics.

She's almost eight which is early, but she has some pretty serious problems so she has to start early with round one and there will more more work later.

Well, it's totally worth it, not only for cosmetic reasons but for dental and physical health. I hope it's not too hard on her.

I see from a news alert that a couple thousand Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq. I sure hope this doesn't turn into a dire situation, it's one of those potential timebombs in Iraq along with a conflict over Tikrit.

In other news I found this Mike Huckabee quote pretty silly. “If they want a president that doesn’t believe in God, there’s plenty of choices." I suppose he's referring to Senator Straw Mann.

I suppose he's referring to Senator Straw Mann.

Considering all the things wrong with Senator Straw Mann, I wonder how he managed to get elected in the first place.

I had a bad dentist as a kid which led to many years of dentist avoidance and a dentist anxiety. But my dentist now is so great that at my last visit I had one filling repaired and another minor filling done without any freezing. And I only found myself forgetting to breathe once in that whole visit.