My Brain is Broke. Or Maybe Just My Teeth.

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a huge hypochondriac. So much so that friends and multiple family members have banned me from ever using WebMD for any reason.

But my worrying had gotten a bit more irrational than normal recently. I had gone to a new dentist to have a basic filling replaced, since it had fallen out. This dentist was not a very good communicator. He went to re-fill the tooth, something started to hurt, and then he told me that he'd put a temporary filling in. He said I needed to go get a root canal, and sent me on my way.

I was LIVID. And also in a lot of pain.

So I got the root canal (at Dentist #2), and when I went back to Dentist #1 to have the crown put on, he said there was another filling that needed to be done, so he did that too (with me praying the whole time that he wouldn't make me get another root canal).

But by now I had had four dentist appointments in as many weeks, and was at the point where I was inspecting my teeth constantly, noticing indentions I hadn't seen before, and telling Matt that all my teeth were going to fall out. And they'd (obviously) have to be replaced with wooden teeth, like George Washington. I'd need big wooden dentures and would have a gummy toothless smile at age 28.

Matt told me I was fine and needed to stop worrying. But Dentist #1 had made me feel like a lifetime of good flossing habits was no longer good enough and that I was doomed, doomed!

So what did I do? I made an appointment with Dentist #3 to make sure there wasn't anything wrong. (Dentist #3 is very nice, and told me that Crap Dentist #1 should have warned me if there was a risk of needing a root canal, since they did X-rays and all and should have been able to tell.)

This is where I get all sad and paranoid. Because for all my hypochondriac tendencies, I've never actually gone to a doctor for an ailment that might have been made up. I've suffered from imagined blood clots and cancers and ebolas knowing that the chances of them being real was absolutely zero, with not a single doctor's visit to show for them. I can't claim that anymore.

Dentist #3 was very nice when he told me that everything looked okay, and I apologized for wasting his time on problems that were only in my head.

Have you done anything completely irrational lately? What's the worst dentist experience you've had?