No? I have…

Although the exact date is a little fuzzy, I want to say it was when I was in eighth grade that this particular tale of woe occurred.  Let’s start with a bit of background, shall we? 

I got my baby teeth rather slowly as a young child.  As a result, I also lost them and got my adult teeth slowly too.  In fact, I lost my last baby tooth at the age of 13, and the dentist had to pull it.  But this story is about my molars.  They came in…funny…to say the least.  Instead of growing in as fully fused teeth, my molars came in in two halves, which resulted in me having to get them filled and effectively glued together.  Because both of the offending teeth were on my lower jaw, and because the dentist isn’t allowed to numb the entire lower jaw lest the patient bite their own tongue off, my fillings were to be done in two sessions.  This story is about the first one.

Before administering Novocain, my dentist uses nitrous oxide to help numb the patient.  I’m no stranger to dental procedures, so I knew full well how this process goes.  After breathing in the gas, my extremities were to get tingly and then they would inject Novocain into my gums.  Except I never got the pins and needles feeling…

The little mask that they have you breathe the gas through has a valve that’s supposed to open and close with each breath.  Mine wasn’t working properly.  It was a full hour before anyone, including myself, noticed.  After the mask was replaced, everything went smoothly.  I had the filling done and they put me on oxygen to bring me out of the laughing gas fog. 

This is where things get, well, a little gross.  When I woke up that morning and had my Pop Tarts, I had no idea that I would be seeing them again.  And their second appearance wasn’t necessarily a welcome one.  After being on the oxygen for about 2 minutes, I asked for a bucket and left my breakfast behind in the dentist’s office.  While the dental hygienist was understanding, I feel bad for her to this day.

At this point I’m sure you’re wondering where the joy is in this story. The part where I find the most joy is when we called the dentist regarding the other tooth (because remember, there were two teeth that needed fixing).  My mom called to schedule the appointment for the filling, and the lady on the phone knew full well who the appointment was for.  Here is roughly how the conversation went:

“Hi, I’d like to make an appointment for my daughter to have a tooth filled.”

“Alright, what’s her name?”

“Susan…”

“Oh yeah, the girl who threw up.  We can take her next week.”

I find the fact that they remembered who I was, simply because I was sick in their office, so funny. While I’m sure it’s not a common occurence, surely more people than just me have been sick at the dentist’s. People have adverse reactions to things all the time. And yet, the receptionist’s response to my mom still makes me chuckle.

So yeah, I’ve thrown up in the dentist’s office.  To add insult to injury, I had to have the same two teeth filled again a few years later because I got cavities in the original fillings (deep teeth grooves…there wasn’t anything I could do about it).  But I still laugh about the original filling to this day.  At the very least, it makes for a good story when I have new procedures done and the hygienists want to give me laughing gas.