now you're just rambling.

this morning i went to the dentist. a lot of people, when you ask them, they will say they don't like to go to the dentist. i will tell you that i don't particularly like the hassle of appointments in general, but the specific idea of visiting the dentist doesn't bother me. well, we call it going to the dentist, but it's really going to the hygenist, the cleaner of teeth.

when i was a child, the shaman took me and the crown prince to a pediatric dentist. i am sure we went fairly often because when i don't try too hard to focus right on the memory, i can catch a glimpse of where the office was located. the pediatric dentist was called dr denny. dr denny the dentist. in a small-world moment, i learned that the hygenist currently providing tooth maintenance to me went to dental school with dr denny.

dr denny had three chairs in an open room so three kids could get their teeth cleaned at the same time. after the cleaning, dr denny would check our teeth and then we'd get to pick a prize toy from a treasure chest that was an actual real treasure chest, although the toys were a bit cheap.

i never had a cavity for dr denny to fill. he always said how strong my teeth were. i enjoyed all my praise-filled visits except for once when i had some grown up teeth come in and the baby teeth roots didn't dissolve and i had a ton of teeth all in my mouth together, and dr denny had to pull some of the baby teeth. i was all numbed up and it didn't hurt, but the sounds were awful.

so dr denny praised my teeth, but their impervience (sp?) was obviously some miracle of nature because educating us kids in proper dental hygeine wasn't tops on the shaman's to-do list. when they gave us those pink pills to chew up at school, to show who had clean teeth, well those we were really not fun days for ol' ace. i remember going in the restroom and scraping my teeth with my fingernails to get some of the stuff off before i chewed the tell-tale pink pill. yeah, scraped it off. thick layers of crud. it's amazing i have my own teeth still. (well, all but 2, and those 2 are now my crowning glory.)

so that brings us to today, a day of much improved dental hygeine habits. i brush. i floss. i listerswish. and, although my gums are receeding a tad, i am still given a gold star with every visit. yeah, i sort of like getting my teeth cleaned and anyway, it's much better than not having teeth at all.