Last week I went under the knife (drill) for journalistic purposes of course, and got my first root canal ever on one of my front teeth.

It was a really transformational experience for a number of reasons, but there was 1 lesson that truly stuck out to me

And that was:

acknowledging the emotional factor in the decisions that we are asking patients to make

I’ve only been working for a year, and I already feel somewhat numb to a lot of the day to day of the job - tap tap tap here, do you feel cold there, pain or no pain.

And it wasn’t until I really went through this that I fully understood the weight of this decision, in that we are asking people to make such a big change to their identity.

I say identity because - and I hate admitting this, but you wanna know what was the biggest reason why I didn’t want to get this root canal?

It wasn’t my fear of the prognosis or procedure, it was that I thought:

hot girls don’t have root canals on their front teeth?

And this would mean I would no longer be in the running to be a hot girl! Now of course I logistically know otherwise, and now that I’m on the other side I can recognize that this was silly. But I acknowledge that in the moment what kept me from pursuing treatment was that I felt like I was making such a permanent change to my identity, and I was afraid for that new identity change - because in my head:

I felt like by me getting this root canal on my front tooth, that I would officially be so different from the rest of the girls my age and different from the girls like me out there

& me being so other and alone felt really scary and shameful.

And I know it sounds ridiculous because if any patient said to me, “I don’t want a root canal because hot girls don’t get root canals on their front tooth” I would literally be like YOU NEED HELP!!!!!

But as a patient, I realized that I have my own personal desires and identity outside of things like health and career ( all the serious stuff )

And so where it used to be easy for me to look at patients that move back or cancel their appointments and think “hmm they must feel scared”, now I look at this and have an added appreciation of “hmm it must feel scary for them, and maybe they’re just not emotionally ready for this decision or action yet”

which I have to respect because I know how hard it can feel now.

For more about my root canal experience - more lessons I learned, what it actually felt like + my experience being on nitrous, check out this week’s episode here!

And now, onto the last segment of this newsletter: your BUZZY BITES, the pop culture news stories of the week to make small talk with - so you can talk to anyone about anything.

BUZZY BITES:

1. CLEAN UP ON AISLE 2: A bag of Cheetos is being blamed for wreaking havoc on the Carlsbad National Park Ecosystem!!! Officials say that a tourist leaving behind this food debris actually caused a huge impact on the critter culture. Read about what this means for the food chain here!

   

2. Touchdown in space! Space X just completed the world’s first all civilian journey - a spacewalk with billionaire Jared Isaacman & Space X Crew on a 5 day flight. Previously only astronauts from government space agencies had been able to complete this mission! What does this mean for civilian life in space? Read more here:

   

   Source: Getty Images

   Message me if this post resonated with you! That’s all for this week’s newsletter, tune into next week’s for more fun! Reply if you are dental, pharmacy, medical or anything else! Would love to hear from you!!

Thanks for reading - if you liked what you read please share this with a friend! See you next week,

xoxo, Connie