First of all, don’t panic. Our daughter has no teeth, and therefore no cavity. You haven’t missed a thousand blog posts between her birth and puberty.

But her old, old mom DOES have a cavity! Doesn’t one outgrow cavities?!

According to my dentist (who is the smiley-est person I’ve ever met and named Pasadena’s Best Dentist 2009), one does NOT outgrow cavities. According to this post, “Changes associated with aging can make cavities a problem for people of any age.” That sure makes one feel old… However, one DOES feel like a 14-year-old when she’s getting a cavity filled after MANY YEARS of cavity-free life.

Um, there’s a SHOT involved in cavity filling. Yeah, forgot that one.

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Oh how I love the Internet. Google “novocaine“, I dare you. If that link worked, you just found out that Novocaine is “Procaine” or “Lidocaine” or “Mepivocaine” (or is it?) – that it has an “e” at the end (or doesn’t), that it’s a derivative of cocaine (or isn’t), that it’s a movie with Steve Martin (that part’s true and shows as the 3rd result in the search), and several other things that Novocaine is (a song, a video gaming community) and/or isn’t. If you were more industrious than that, you found out that scientists are working on making a nasal spray version of Novocaine to replace the needle (or are they?).

Of course, that article is from May and just yesterday I had the joy of remembering how much I hate the Novocaine (or whatever it’s called) shot. In fact, I was going to use an image of a syringe for this post to remind everyone how exciting that shot can be, but my daughter’s much cuter ;)

Anyway, a cavity. I must admit, I assumed I had a cavity, which is why I got a same-day appointment with my dentist. And my sister had warned me that pregnancy can be rough on the teeth since hormones mess with your ability to fight bacteria. So I’m not sure why I was surprised to hear I HAD a cavity or why the words “let’s just fill it” didn’t instantly make me remember that there was a shot, then drilling, stuffing, suction, infrared light, and biting down on some odd scrap of plastic that would follow those words.

I will also admit that my dentist rocks. I barely felt any of it, and even when the Novocaine (sp?) wore off, I had little pain and am AOK this morning. It’s like it never happened. Which is why I plan to go right back to forgetting about cavities – and I suggest you do the same ;)

Now we can all enjoy Thanksgiving goodness in peace! Gobble Gobble!