Dentist Today

I had my first visit to a Norwegian dentist today. I won't remind you how long we have lived here, but I did take advantage of my US insurance and schedule an appointment just before we relocated. I had no idea what to expect. I had been experiencing a bit of discomfort from one of my upper fillings.

The first interesting aspect of the appointment is that there is no hygienist. My appointment was strictly with the dentist. I began by giving him a brief rundown of my dental history (I still have all my wisdom teeth, for example). He took two X-rays---- thankfully only two. He then took a few photos of my fillings using some tiny dental camera. He then showed me the images on a monitor and explained that my old amalgam fillings were expanding, and would eventually crack the tooth entirely. The consequence of waiting until the tooth is cracked is that it can cost tens times as much money to treat. I needed three of the fillings replaced. The rest of the appointment was uneventful, and I scheduled an appointment in October to have them replaced, and paid for today's appointment.

Lise and I carpooled, since my office is on the way to the university and I was running late from the dentist. I started describing the appointment, and Lise could practically finish all my sentences. She referred me to him, and apparently he told her the same thing about one of her fillings. On one hand, it was a bit suspicious, but on the other, something is clearly going on with one of them, and amalgam fillings were recently banned in Norway.

I thought the dental camera was a bit unusual, and commented about it at work. None of my coworkers had seen such a thing before. I had never seen one in the US. The other notable difference between the US is that he did not advocate flossing as much as using a special kind of plastic toothpick. Anything is better than flossing, so I will give it a try.

Work was busy, as are most days leading up to a work trip. I leave for Boston Sunday. I found out later in the day that I am heading to London the Friday of the week I return. It seems like I was just there (in June). This should just be an overnight trip, as my meeting is in the morning. Other than that, my only other trip scheduled is to San Diego in early November. I should be able to see my parents during that trip.

After work we picked Julian up at the daycare. We dropped the car off at home first. We really want to keep him in the habit of walking home. When we arrived, he was sitting at a children's table with five other kids, all of them busy playing with crayons and markers. He seemed to ignore us--- looked like he was having a great time and was in no hurry to leave. Eventually we made it out of there and walked home. We played in the playground on the street until it began to rain heavily.

It feels like summer is over. It has been rainy the past few days. I normally hate driving to work, but it rained so much last night that my bike shoes were still wet. It is time to switch out to my winter riding setup--- which is mostly waterproof. It is raining again tonight, and I am sure it will be wet tomorrow in the morning.

I am writing this on my new laptop. I really needed one, as the new software we just released was crushing my old one. The new setup is much faster. Of course it is no easy feat moving everything to the new machine, and Windows Vista is a complete joke. But I was sick of working on XP for so many years--- I needed a little change.