No delay for decay

After a tense night of clenching my jaw and trying to sleep fitfully, I finally made myself get out of bed and ready to go to the dentist. I have dental anxiety these days, and for good reason I believe. I absolutely detest when my dentist probes my teeth with that awful metal instrument to gauge the depth of my gums. My gums are receding so my dentist seems to want to be EXTRA thorough in this procedure; 5 stabs around each tooth. Ugh. It makes me cringe. I despise...well, I guess all I really hate about the dentist is the probing. Usually everything else is fine. I even enjoy having my teeth cleaned by Francois because we converse in French. But today the spot on my tooth that was detected at my last visit has become a problem and will need work. Bottom line is this - I have a cavity. This may not be as distressing as you might think, but it's my first cavity my mouth has seen since it's previous inhabitants. I did have a small cavity in a baby tooth, but that ended up falling out (why they decided to fill it I'll never know), and I have taken extra special care of my teeth ever since; mainly to avoid having to experience having another cavity. I almost feel that the novocaine shot that they give you is more painful than the actual drilling and filling. Anyhow, this bad news aside, my dentist didn't even probe my teeth today. So all that late night worrying was for naught. Though now I'll have my next visit to worry about, and on a potentially greater level... I blame the Northwest. For all the benefits to having relatively clean, chemical free drinking water, I think it's the lack of Fluoride that has caused my tooth to decay. Bah. I'll just have to suck it up, and remind myself of all the other benefits of living here that far outweigh tooth decay.