{"id":285,"date":"2021-05-13T17:50:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T00:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/?p=285"},"modified":"2021-05-13T17:50:53","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T00:50:53","slug":"uncle-josh-on-going-to-the-dentist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/13\/uncle-josh-on-going-to-the-dentist\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncle Josh on Going to the Dentist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sometime earlier this week I chipped by front tooth. It didn&#8217;t hurt, but it played with my mouth feel and I kept thinking I had a hair stuck between my teeth. With my beard and moustache, that&#8217;s not an unlikely scenario. So I called my old dentist and managed to get an appointment for this morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My history with dentistry and orthodontia is not pretty.  While many of my classmates got those cool glue-on braces with colors, I got full bands on every tooth, had to wear a retainer 24 hours a day, and my teeth to this day have clear lines where the braces sat. My orthodontist didn&#8217;t like my squirming during tightenings and would thump my sternum to get me to calm down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an adult, usually because of financial constraints, I stopped going to the dentist. I have had spurts of regular appointments, but then go for years between visits. I have created for myself the emotional equation that Dentist=PAIN or worse, Dentist=BANKRUPT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I spent most of yesterday scared, and it only got worse once I made the appointment. It was no longer a thing I could avoid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like most people, I don&#8217;t like to live in fear<span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_285_1('footnote_plugin_reference_285_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_285_1('footnote_plugin_reference_285_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_285_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_285_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">I&#8217;ll have to qualify that statement if I ever get around to discussing victimhood as a lifestyle<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_285_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_285_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script>. I don&#8217;t even like to use the phrase &#8220;I&#8217;m stressed&#8221; because unless I&#8217;m lifting several hundred pounds, it&#8217;s not stress I&#8217;m feeling, but fear, and fear, in theory, I can deal with. Yesterday&#8217;s fear wasn&#8217;t going away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I talked to the smartest and wisest person I know. My wife told me I was being irrational and it wouldn&#8217;t bankrupt us and I&#8217;d feel much better once it was all over. Of course she was right, but in the moment I couldn&#8217;t escape the fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I even posted a question about this to Reddit and got a decent answer (and someone who told me to take CBD, which I still consider GETTING STONED, so no, not a good idea). I managed to sleep remembering something I picked up from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/articles\/coddling-of-the-american-mind-lukianoff-interview\/\">Art of Manliness<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Emotions are information, not instructions.<\/p><cite>Greg Lukianoff, co-author of \u201cThe Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.&#8221;<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I suspect it was the talking about the fear that helped. Quantifying the fear allowed me to pull a Sarah-to-the-Goblin-King on it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>You have no power over me.<\/p><cite>Sarah, in <em>Labyrinth<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I had my teeth cleaned, which took a long-ass time and I think at least one chisel lost its edge in the work, but I endured. The chipped tooth stopped bothering me. They took x-rays and found a host of things to fix, which wasn&#8217;t a surprise, and I&#8217;m going back tomorrow for part of the work, and then next week for even more work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But now I am not afraid.<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_285_1();\">Digressions<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_285_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_285_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_285_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Digressions<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_285_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_285_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_285_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">I&#8217;ll have to qualify that statement if I ever get around to discussing victimhood as a lifestyle<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_285_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_285_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_285_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_285_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_285_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_285_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_285_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_285_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_285_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_285_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_285_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_285_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_285_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_285_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometime earlier this week I chipped by front tooth. It didn&#8217;t hurt, but it played with my mouth feel and I kept thinking I had a hair stuck between my teeth. With my beard and moustache, that&#8217;s not an unlikely scenario. So I called my old dentist and managed to get an appointment for this &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[70],"tags":[128,127],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armchair-philosophy","tag-dentist","tag-fear"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287,"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions\/287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshuarenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}