Of Art and Crowns

Dental work is a fiasco.

Many of you may know that in December a tooth that had previously had a root canal got painfully re-infected, so in early January I had to have an endodontic retreatment procedure. It turns out that the crown on the tooth, from my original root canal, was made of entirely porcelain instead of metal and porcelain, so I needed a new crown. My dentist in NoVA said it wasn't pressing and could be done in May when I returned from college.

He's incompetant. His office is disorganized, and he always makes me feel like I'm an annoyance. He gave me a crown on Tuesday; it fell off on Wednesday, after I'd already driven back to Williamsburg after making a special trip to D.C to have it put on. He wanted me to drive back at least one more time to look at it again, probably a few more times. So I found a dentist in Williamsburg. I went in this morning and he told me he could not in good conscience put the crown made by the other dentist onto my tooth. He showed me all the ways that it was made incorrectly, and corroborated what I already knew about the incompetance of my former dentist-- such as the fact that he never shaped the tooth, nor did he give me a temporary crown while the permanent was being made, nor did he put in the crown himself, nor did he check the "permanent" crown after it was put in, and the list goes on. So I have to have the entire crowning procedure re-done through July. Grrr. The bright spot is the new dentist-- he's amazing at what he does, plus he's a VMI guy! He was a senior while my dad was in Rat year, so we bonded.

As to the art part of the title-- I bought new art for my home today! J.C. Penny was having a sale on the most beautiful framed paintings, so I bought them to put in my dining room, bedroom, and living room. Finally I can take down the rather shabby posters left by the owners! It will look like a real home!!! I'm so excited about the paintings-- one is of Venice, one of a French village by the sea, and the other a print from a Renaissance painting which shows a map of the earth. North America is oddly shaped, and the globe is surrounded by paintings which supposedly represent the continents-- it's so beautiful. I spent several hours today picking out the paintings and carting them home and figuring out where they will go. I couldn't be happier with the artistic choices or with how they make the house seem much less white-washed. Things seem to be coming together nicely. Maybe this summer will be wonderful, after all. :)