I got my teeth fixed today. The cap \/ repair \/ bonding agent \/ whatever that I had installed on a front tooth when I was 13 decided to fall off while I was in Haiti. The dentist fixed me right up, including:<\/p>\n
* Local anesthetic (yay for anesthesia!) He even threw an additional filling on one of the back teeth for good measure. God, I love having good dental insurance. I can think of nothing<\/em> better than spending a morning with a vacuum, a carbide drill, a retaining ring (“keeps the tooth from shattering when we drill”), a “wedge,” two cotton balls, and up to three hands in my mouth. <\/p>\n For extra bonus points, I attempted the “calm abiding” mode of meditation that I’ve been practicing. Turns out that it’s okay for most of the steps, but when someone is drilling in my mouth, it disrupts my settled awareness of my own consciousness. I clearly have more practicing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I got my teeth fixed today. The cap \/ repair \/ bonding agent \/ whatever that I had installed on a front tooth when I was 13 decided to fall off while I was in Haiti. The dentist fixed me right up, including:<\/p>\n
\n* Grinding with carbide and diamond bits
\n* “Etching” the surface (“don’t touch this with your tongue, it tastes really bad”)
\n* Plus my favorite: the magic “bonding” light which turns the epoxy into tooth-alike
\n* More grinding
\n* biting on carbon paper to mark where it didn’t fit yet
\n* MORE<\/em> grinding
\n* Spitting. Lots of spitting.<\/p>\n