OT: A fabulous adventure at my dentist's office. Lasers. Oh so good!!!

Emily at the Lake. 

I've always been afraid of dentist visits during which I needed to have some procedure done. A filling, a crown, a repair, anything was enough to having me fretting for days. At the very core of my fears were experiences over decades of having to have injections of Novocaine (or whatever it is these days) at the start of the procedures. For some reason I had a progression of dentists who seemed, philosophically, to feel that deadening the sensation for the actual procedure was much more important than any discomfort delivered during the slow and agonizing process of doing the injections. 

A new dentist took over the practice I'd gone to for almost twenty five years. That transition was about eight years ago. She was different. If Dr. Farahani needed to inject a local anesthetic to repair an old filling she could do so with a feather touch. It was a revelation to me. Almost, almost pain free dentistry. When I was in the office last week for a check-up and clean she noticed a worsening of an old, cracked filling we'd been watching. Time to clear it out and replace it with one of the new composites. 

We booked an appointment for today. I worried all weekend that the actual injection of a local anesthetic would be painful and this dredged up my memories and fears of dental (mis)adventures of the past. I was nervous as I walked in to the office. My blood pressure spiked to 125 over 70. I sat down in the chair and my dentist explained to me that today there would be no injections. No locals. And no pain. They'd be using a laser to clean out the old filling and prep the tooth for the new one. Being fearless at trying out new camera technologies but wracked with anxiety over anything new in the health field I approached my initial laser dental treatment with a full dose of cortisol rampaging through my veins. 

I need not have worried. My dentist is a master professional/super dentist; she and her assistant worked quickly, efficiently and with great regard for detail. I walked out of the office 45 minutes after walking in, with a big smile on my face and many questions about the technical guts and workings of the lasers dentists are now using. Resisting as best I can a plunge into those nuts and bolts. I hope to convince myself that this is yet another field in which I don't need to research... 

"How soon after the procedure can I safely drink coffee?" The perfect response: "immediately." 

Frickin' laser beams!!! Cue Dr. Evil in the first Austin Powers movie... Dr. Evil: "You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now, evidently, my cycloptic ..."

the photos of Emily at the lake have nothing to do with dentistry.

But at the time I was using what I considered fun, outdoor lighting.

A Profoto battery powered generator with a corded flash head.

Not as cool as a laser but....