I Hate the Dentist

I hate the dentist - or should I say, I hate what the dentist told me this morning. Let me preface this by saying that I have always had (what I thought to be) good teeth. I'm 28 years old and have never had a cavity - which is very surprising considering the copious amounts of candy I eat. My teeth are straight (after only 8 months worth of braces in 4th grade). Even my wisdom teeth are small, straight, still in my mouth, and don't hurt (we'll get to them in a minute). So... imagine my surprise this morning when I went to the dentist and he told me that:

 

1. The amount of ware on my teeth do to grinding them is equivalent to what he would expect to see in a 50-60 year old patient.

2. Because I grind my teeth and have worn them down (especially the back molars), I will need to have one root canal and crown immediately and I can expect to need 3-4 more crowns in the future.

3. My wisdom teeth are infected and the infection is spreading to the neighboring teeth (what???).

4. My wisdom teeth should be removed asap and I should get injections of antibiotic into the neighboring teeth to kill any residual infection.

Awesome. 

I know that many of you are thinking that you have had one or more of the above conditions and that it's really no big deal. This is of no real comfort to me. I am afraid. I am afraid of the pain that I may experience. I am afraid of being put under anesthesia. This totally stinks. And to top it all off, I almost burst into tears (at work) today after reading Ryan's post on his blog for today - and I don't even like dogs!

Bottom line - I think I'm going to get a second opinion. So if any of you know a good dentist in Nashville, please let me know.