For those of you who may be ignorant to the whole scaling of the gums procedure, it is when the Periodontist cleans your teeth and gums down to the root. Usually, such as my case for example, your dental hygienist/dentist will recommend that you visit a Periodontist for their opinion if you’ve got some deep pockets (where the gum  pocket is deep and exposed around the tooth).

Why, you may be asking, is this Life Coach blogging about a gum scaling procedure from hell?  Well, I would reply, that is such a good question.  One of the topics of coaching that comes up almost immediately is “how well are you caring for yourself”.  You might be surprised to know how many people, very successful, intelligent, competent people, who do not care for themselves….very….well.  One area that very busy executives can allow to slip by is their teeth.  Now once you’ve realized the error of your ways and get into a regular dental regime of brushing twice a day and flossing at least once a day plus getting your teeth cleaned by a professional twice a year…..well….let me put it this way…you become hyper sensitive to those around you who do not. I won’t even go into the kissing part…bleh, bleh! bleh!!!

For some of us, in spite of having good dental hygiene, you may have been dealt the cards for naturally poor teeth or gums like I have been.  I haven’t had to worry about deep pockets for at least 8 years, so I’ve been lucky.  I don’t know why when my hygienist recommended the Periodontist this time, that I didn’t remind her of the good one that I had seen previously. But I didn’t and I trusted their judgment.  Besides, the Office Manager said he was really cute!    How did things end up going down hill for me?  Well, for one thing the two Halcion tablets that they gave me before the procedure didn’t seem to be effecting me in the slightest (I was able to read an entire four pages about Steve Jobs in Time Magazine) so the assistant gave me one more.

The next thing I knew, I had my face completely covered except for my mouth and the Periodontist was shooting Novocaine into my gums. Now, I admit, the Dentist I’ve been going to for at least twenty years now is really, really good and spoils his patients wonderfully but I don’t remember the Periodontist telling me he was going to shoot my gums, nor did he gently give a little bit to numb the area at first and then give the deeper one.  Plus, he didn’t tell me that I was going to feel a tug.  It was very uncomfortable.  At one point I remember trying to grab his hand so he couldn’t hurt me anymore and him telling me (nicely) not to grab his hand and me telling him I wanted to hit him because he was hurting me.  Then I told him that he might want to watch how my Dentist does it because he never hurts me.  Okay, I know that was like committing hari kari suicide with this Periodontist. In fact, no one from his office has called to check up on me 24 hours later….

I’m sharing this with you dear readers not to scare you away from taking care of yourselves but rather to encourage you to ask a whole lot of questions of the doctor/periodontist before you have a procedure so that you can get a feel for them and then LISTEN TO YOUR GUT (or your heart, or mind) and pay attention to any little inklings that you get.

Oh, and they gave me some pain medication to take after the procedure that caused me to throw up bile twice this morning.  Not sure what that was about except that when I googled the medication it did say if you feel nauseous when taking it to take it with food.  Really, though I don’t seem to need any kind of pain medication today.  So that’s good.  I’ll give that to the Periodontist. My Australian Shepherd was beside himself trying to figure out how to help me as I retched into the commode.  Luckily, he has never seen me sick!

I’m happy to say that the doctors who I see for my general upkeep are excellent and make me feel cared for and heard.  I also realize that because they are  so good they have helped me to raise my standards in terms of medical care.  And that’s a good thing.  Hold out for the good ones but go see them when you find them.

Who do you need to make an appointment with today?