Nothing But The Tooth

I took advantage of the time off during the holidays to have a filling. Everything seemed rote: I got anesthetized; the drilling ensued; followed by weird sensation of having the hole in the enamel filled with quick drying silver. Such was the nature of a standard tooth filling. I was told that the tooth will be “cold sensitive for a couple of weeks.” I accepted this, much to my beer-swigging chagrin.

Five days ago, that tooth started smarting, which would usually be followed by a headache. I attempted to quell it with ibuprofen or acetaminophen– whatever was handy– and the pain from both the tooth and the headache would disappear. I visited the dentist yesterday and it turns out that I will now need a root canal on that tooth. I made an appointment.

Herein lies my quagmire: what if that same dentist fucks it up even more so? I’m already of the impression that she didn’t do something right in the first place. Should I continue to place my faith in her, open wide, and hope that she fixes the problem? Or should I say, to hell with her and pick a new dentist. My confidantes have alluded to the latter being the better choice, and they came with dentist recommendations to boot.

But, what if the problem lay with the tooth itself–the tooth that I had in my care to begin with, which I perhaps didn’t take care of properly? What if my current dentist had done everything right and is just being the unlucky recipient of my blame? A part of me is saying ‘Fuck it! She’s not the one in pain!’, but another part of me is saying ‘Give her another chance.’

Sigh…what to do? What to do?

Diet/Fitness Informercials on Health Club TVs: Helpful or Not?

I’ve always found diet or fitness infomercials annoying as hell. Imagine being bombarded by them while having a workout. It’s driving me nuts!

My health club is equipped with over ten 52″ flat panel LCD TVs adorning the cardiovascular and anaerobic areas. Whether you’re lifting weights or on one of multiple cardio-machines, you always have one TV program or another within easy viewing. The channels include the news, sports programs, network and cable channels. The cardio machines have those nifty wireless receivers to which you can plug your headphones. There are also buttons that allow you to select from which TV to hear sound and volume adjustment. Pretty convenient high tech stuff!

I workout in the mornings, which means I always have the previous evening’s sports highlights and that day’s news broadcasting over those TVs. While I’m on the treadmill, I am able to view eight TVs broadcasting eight different programs simultaneously. I can, if I so choose, watch the local morning news for five minutes, then switch to ESPN for ten minutes, then tune in to CNBC for another five minutes, before sticking to one program or repeating that cycle. Barring the possibility of information overload or becoming schizophrenic, having access to multiple TVs while muddling through my 3 to 5 miles on the treadmill actually helps to keep my mind occupied, taking it off the pain that exercise sometimes comes with.

For some reason, the time between 5am and 8am is also when those dreaded diet and fitness infomercials seem to be on, where they advertise a variety of nutrition systems and/or an exercise contraption that will “revolutionize the fitness industry.” While the health club management may believe that tuning the TV to these programs in the morning can act as inspiration–an aid in visualizing ourselves as leaner, healthier, more fit–they are actually having the adverse effect on me. When those programs start flashing those crazy results (i.e. “Melissa lost 156 pounds in 5 hours! Amazing!”), I start getting irritated.

Firstly, those results aren’t typical, and are often coupled with other factors such as high metabolism (which I don’t have) and heavily restrictive diets (at which I’ve been unsuccessful time and time again). Secondly, it makes me think, “Why the hell am I on this treadmill if that blasted contraption on TV is what will actually yield better results?” Lastly, some of those diet or fitness programs or equipment cost major moolah (which, again, I don’t have). What’s worse is that I’ve given in to over a dozen of those informercials in the past and have had disastrous results!

I suppose I just shouldn’t watch those programs and just focus on the other TV shows that are less annoying. But I can’t help it; I know it’s there and begs to be viewed. Sigh…wish me luck.