Just the thing to remind you to floss...

Chris has a brutal toothache. The kind I can't even imagine.

The kind that sends me to the bathroom every night flossing diligently and brushing far longer and more vigorously than usual.

The kind that makes my jaw ache in sympathy. There's nothing you can do, either -- the codeine doesn't seem to be working and rinsing with water non-stop seems to be the only thing stopping him from committing bloody murder (my research tells me it's likely an abscess).

Anyway, despite an emergency dental appointment where we thought it would be fixed, it looks likely the tooth will have to be pulled.

Yikes.

I've never really had a toothache. (Don't get me wrong --- I've paid in dental karma in brutal ways, like landing on a metal slide face first and fracturing my upper jawbone and completely rearranging/cracking/chipping my front teeth, having four adult molars removed when I was 10, not to mention a couple of years of very painful braces -- mmm... mush and children's tylenol.)

But when it came to dental hygiene, I was always a pretty good kid. The flossing was occasionally intermittent, but I was definitely one of those brush-at-least-two-times-a-day kids. No overbrushing, but enough to ensure that by the time I had university, I had never had a cavity.

But I haven't been to a dentist in a couple of years. Well, more than that. Like... Eight. At least.

Fear.

Add fear to procrastination, and it makes a deadly combination. I know I'll be going to the dentist in the next few months, but I'm dreading all of the bad news. Wisdom teeth need to be pulled. Root canals due (leftover from aforementioned accident). The settling up with my very first cavities.

Ugh.

I'm going to go floss now.