*is a great big scaredy cat*

I have a dental appointment this morning, and I am practically hyperventilating. I'm petrified of the dentist, always have been.

Well, maybe not always. I was fine when I was younger, but after eighteen months of wearing braces, dentist visits became unbearable. Luckily for me, I have good teeth. On the downside, my gums are not so clever. The amount of movement that went on when my teeth were being straightened left my lower gums prone to what the dentists call 'pockets'. This means that they need a scale and polish more often than most people. Trouble is, each time I have a scale and polish, the 'pockets' get a little deeper.

For the last five or six years I have been unable to have a scale and polish without the aid of several injections to numb the gums. I'm usually fine with needles - I had so many throughout my pregnancies, not to mention the small surgeries I have had, that I'm immune to them. But when it comes to my mouth, no way. I'm sat here cringing as I imagine myself in the dentist's chair in a hour or so. I'll need at least six injections before they start, and each and every one lasts for around ten seconds. OK, that's only a minute of pain, but honestly, I would rather go through childbirth again if I had the option (and my labours were rough).

I know a fear of injections is pretty common, but it still doesn't make me feel any better. I took my seven-year-old last week for a filling, and she was giggling so much that you would have thought she was being tickled. She winced for about two seconds, but when asked, she explained that it was because the dentist had accidentally brushed against a small ulcer. Go figure. My daughter is ten times as brave as me.

I'm such a scaredy cat, that I had to take someone with me when I had to have a wisdom tooth removed a couple of years ago. Seriously. A thirty-something woman needed someone to hold her hand. The dentist (who knows what a wuss I am) suggested I get some Valium prior to the extraction, that's how bad I am.

Anywho, I don't have anyone to hold my hand today, and it's a double whammy. Not only is it my six-monthly scale and polish, but I need a small filling too. I made sure to get two appointments right after each other, that way the injections from the scale and polish will cover me for the filling too. I can just about muster the courage for these visits once every six months, but twice in a week?  There's no way in this world that's ever going to happen.*shudders*

I'll be there in an hour. *cries* But in two hours I'll be home again. *tiny yay* Of course, I'll be drooling for the rest of the day because my jaw will be number than a bum that's been sat on a cold floor for too long. On the plus side, my nervousness has meant that I was up early and have thoroughly cleaned the entire house, and written my blog too. When I get home, I can concentrate on my NaNo stuff. Of course, I'll need to make sure the keyboard stays dry. A combination of scaredy cat tears and dribble from a slack jaw could prove to be a deadly combination....