Thank You, Ira Glass

Yesterday, I had a root canal done. For this entry, I'll leave out how old this experience made me feel. Seriously? I'm only in my early thirties.

Anyway, due to a series of bad dentists who put shoddily done fillings in the same tooth over the past six years, I found myself in an endodonist's office full of scraper thingies, long pointies, and giant syringes. I do have to admit, the endodontist was extremely patient with me, and even got out his tooth models to show me what he was planning to do. Despite this, I was still focused on the picture I had seen on Wikipedia of a nerve, ripped from a tooth and splattered onto a stark, white surface in an ugly, unnatural way. I lie there reclined in the dental chair, knees weak from this image, which I had accidentally burned into my brain with my constant revisiting of the webpage to stare in horror at the photograph.

Luckily, I had spoken with some people at work (many of whom shared their own root canal horror stories - why do people do that?), so I knew that the procedure was a long one. I had brought my iPod along, thinking I would listen to soothing music while the endodontist drilled away at my face. At the last moment before he began working on my tooth, I had an inspiration and clicked on my podcast of This American Life, created by Ira Glass. I totally want to marry this show. It's funny, poignant, and insightful. So, while my endodontist pried my mouth open with a rubber clamp and used just about every alien instrument on his various little tables, I closed my eyes and listened intently to Ira Glass and his weekly cast of everyday people talking about maps.

I was so relaxed and into the podcast, in fact, that when the endodontist sat me up for some x-rays, I was bewildered. I even paused the podcast to see what he was up to. He x-rayed and then reclined the chair once again. I opened my eyes to see him removing three impossibly long corn-poker things from my tooth. Seriously, I'm surprised they didn't impale some much-needed cortex area. The endodontist did some measuring of the corn-pokers. I briefly considered staying focused on the disturbing things happening in my mouth, but instead closed my eyes, un-paused Ira and crew, and went back to my happy place.

All in all, it wasn't a terrible experience. We'll see how the follow up appointments go. One thing is for sure, though... Ira Glass will be accompanying me to all of my dental appointments from now on.