Crowning Achievment

I went to the dentist yesterday to fix a mistake the Navy dentists made when i was in boot camp 10 years ago.

The Dentist was a new hire to the office. His last job was..? Navy Dentist.

So I of course asked if he would fix it "Pro Bono" but he politely declined.

The major part of the process went fine, until it came time to fit a temporary crown. After about 30 unsuccessful attempts, the Dental Assistant finally made one fit by modifying it with an angle grinder (that oddly resembles my Dremmel tool) and a hacksaw.

She squeezed some goop into the new temporary crown, put it over the tooth, made me bight down on a wadded up piece of gauze for a few minutes. I lay back, Watching "Malcolm in the middle" on their complimentary TV service, trying not to laugh. I think they have comedy shows playing just to increase the torture ratio.

After a few minutes, I open my mouth and she starts cutting away the extra "cement" that formed around the base of the tooth. She has the "suction" device in there as well to suck up all the leftover cement. Next thing I hear is "Oh crap" and she runs out of the room.

I wasn't sure if it was the "oh crap" or a commercial that caused my attention to be diverted back to the task at hand, so I cautiously probe the new crown with my tongue. Or, as I discovered, where the crown was suppose to be. She comes back in a few minutes later, with the crown in a towel. Apparently it was sucked into the suction thingy. So we went through the whole process over again with cementing it down. She made me bight down a little longer then before. This time it turned out okay.

I should have asked if she cleaned the crown first before it was re-used.