Crowns

There are all sorts of crowns...royal crowns, porcelain crowns, gold crowns, imperial crown, state crown, British crown coin, crown of the head, crown ether, crown Vetch. I could go on and on and on! Today I was privileged to start the process of getting a tooth crowned. Yes, I know you all thought I was perfect, but apparently I do have some major flaws. I love that going to school here I have access to cheaper dental care, but it has it's costs. In order to even have anything done to your teeth, you have to go through quite a process. Day one is a screening for candidacy, day two is an actually teeth screening with x-rays and plan of action, day three is a detailed cleaning, day four is prepping my teeth with a temporary crown, day five is building the mold, and day six is actually placing the crown. Mind you, through all of this there is a student doctor that is caring for me, with other doctors overseeing the care. That means that I not only go through the process once, but twice, and sometimes three time. I'm at the clinic four three to four hours each visit. At least I know that my teeth are in good hands.

I've decided that working in the mouth is not for me.  There are a lot of gross things you can see!  Plus, there are many things to consider - numerous nerves run throughout the face, everyone's bite is different, you have to be an artist to structure the right kind of teeth & finish off fillings, a variety of tools to understand, administering shots, and you are bent over using the same muscles all day long.  Wow, just talking about it is exhausting.

I can see why people don't like going to the dentist or the doctor.  Sitting there for hours with lights shining in my eyes, getting sprayed with the dentist's water hose (or instrument), nerve block being metabolized & pain initiated, the smell of things burning, the taste of things used, and occasionally, choking on my saliva or having the gag sensation stimulated, or even a the tooth fragment falling to the back of the throat.

As I was laying there my thoughts were focused on many things.  As of late, I've been daydreaming.  It must be from a lack of sleep that my mind can't stay focused on one topic for too long.

Wiki defines daydreaming as:

"A daydream is a visionary fantasy experienced while awake, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes, or ambitions.^[1] There are so many different types of daydreaming that there is still no consensus definition amongst psychologists.^[1] While daydreams may include fantasies about future scenarios or plans, reminiscences about past experiences, or vivid dream-like images, they are often connected with some type of emotion.

Daydreaming may take the form of a train of thought, leading the daydreamer away from being aware of his immediate surroundings, and concentrating more and more on these new directions of thought. To an observer, they may appear to be affecting a blank stare into the distance, and only a sudden stimulus will startle the daydreamer out of their reverie.

While daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive pastime, daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts. There are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists, and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians, and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas."

I guess there must be something going on in my brain to cause all of the recent daydreaming.  A few things that I've been thinking about are: the jungle or the zoo, autopsies, wake-boarding, drugs, Memorial weekend, riding motorcycles, and other various things.

Daydreaming about crowns!