Maybe it's just one of my traits - I'm also VERY sensitive to spicy food. Often when eating spicy food, I feel like my mouth is on fire, tears are running down my cheeks, I'm desperately holding ice water in my mouth and reaching for a handkerchief, someone else eating the same food just shrugs and says, "it's a bit spicey, but not THAT hot" 
.
Speaking of tooth-related torture, I think dental floss is just brutal. I get shivers down my spine when I think of cutting my gum with a piece of string. Like really! That's horror movie level of horrible. That could be a scene in the Saw movie series and it wouldn't be out of place. Still, I can't argue, it is effective in dental hygiene. I just wish it wasn't so horrible. I started flossing a month ago so I'm still getting used to it and I hurt myself really often. Some of you might think, "you didn't floss before?! OH MY GOD!!! Nasty.". And the rest of, I guess majority, would think, "people actually floss?
". In Estonia people don't normally floss. Perhaps dental floss wasn't available during soviet times. I know some women who started flossing in their twenties but it certainly isn't widespread in Estonia. Even in USA, where people have been taught to floss since they were children, only 10-40%* of people floss daily (*as I read from Wikipedia).
". In Estonia people don't normally floss. Perhaps dental floss wasn't available during soviet times. I know some women who started flossing in their twenties but it certainly isn't widespread in Estonia. Even in USA, where people have been taught to floss since they were children, only 10-40%* of people floss daily (*as I read from Wikipedia).
Oh god, why am I thinking of teeth so much?! 
Oh yeah, I have a dental appointment tomorrow.
Oh yeah, I have a dental appointment tomorrow.
About a month ago I went to a dentist's just to get my teeth checked. The dentist wasn't happy at all. She described how I need about €2000 worth of tooth care. 
No, my teeth aren't horrible and she didn't even find any cavities. That's the cost of having crowns fitted on the teeth on my favored side. Maybe that's a good idea, maybe not, maybe it's just a sales tactic. I'm going to a different dentist tomorrow to get a second opinion. Actually I'm not going to a different doctor because the number scared me. I'm going to a different doctor because that place looked creepy. I'm not too fond of going to a dentist but the modern dentists offices, full of sterile gadgets and expensive high-tech equipment, are kind of soothing. That place wasn't.
Imagine an old soviet apartment building. On the first floor, one of the apartments has been built into a dentist's office. The chair looks like it might squeak but it doesn't. The soviet era reception desk is equipped with a simple laptop. The laptop isn't connected to the Internet (!!!). The drill looks about 10 years old. The dentist ensured me that only the drill tips really matter but the drill did look questionable. The cupboard full of cotton and other such things didn't even have a door. It would have been okay if it was meant that way, but it looked like the door fell off at some point and they didn't have money to fix it. But the prices were somewhat cheaper and the doctor seemed very skilled so initially I thought I would ignore the problems. But then I started paying for the check-up and found out they only take cash! "You don't take card? Uhm, really? No card?". 
I barely had any cash with me but fortunately spare change at the bottom of the bag made up for what I was lacking in my wallet. I even considered it before I left home and we agreed with Erkki that there is no way they won't accept card. Even some second-hand stores can afford to enable card payments. Even the small corner stores that only sell stale bread and booze accept card. I am not going to carry hundreds of euros in my wallet for each of those dentist's appointments just because the dentist's office is stuck in the soviet time. If I fix my teeth in a place like that and something, anything, goes wrong, I would just ask myself, "Well, what did you expect?". So tomorrow I'm going to Maxilla, which is the most modern, but also the most expensive dentist in Tartu. For a while I felt really guilty about it - I'm going to pay a lot more to have the exact same procedures just so I can pay with a card. But then I realized that I wouldn't even buy a cell phone in a place that looked that iffy.
No, my teeth aren't horrible and she didn't even find any cavities. That's the cost of having crowns fitted on the teeth on my favored side. Maybe that's a good idea, maybe not, maybe it's just a sales tactic. I'm going to a different dentist tomorrow to get a second opinion. Actually I'm not going to a different doctor because the number scared me. I'm going to a different doctor because that place looked creepy. I'm not too fond of going to a dentist but the modern dentists offices, full of sterile gadgets and expensive high-tech equipment, are kind of soothing. That place wasn't. Imagine an old soviet apartment building. On the first floor, one of the apartments has been built into a dentist's office. The chair looks like it might squeak but it doesn't. The soviet era reception desk is equipped with a simple laptop. The laptop isn't connected to the Internet (!!!). The drill looks about 10 years old. The dentist ensured me that only the drill tips really matter but the drill did look questionable. The cupboard full of cotton and other such things didn't even have a door. It would have been okay if it was meant that way, but it looked like the door fell off at some point and they didn't have money to fix it. But the prices were somewhat cheaper and the doctor seemed very skilled so initially I thought I would ignore the problems. But then I started paying for the check-up and found out they only take cash! "You don't take card? Uhm, really? No card?". I barely had any cash with me but fortunately spare change at the bottom of the bag made up for what I was lacking in my wallet. I even considered it before I left home and we agreed with Erkki that there is no way they won't accept card. Even some second-hand stores can afford to enable card payments. Even the small corner stores that only sell stale bread and booze accept card. I am not going to carry hundreds of euros in my wallet for each of those dentist's appointments just because the dentist's office is stuck in the soviet time. If I fix my teeth in a place like that and something, anything, goes wrong, I would just ask myself, "Well, what did you expect?". So tomorrow I'm going to Maxilla, which is the most modern, but also the most expensive dentist in Tartu. For a while I felt really guilty about it - I'm going to pay a lot more to have the exact same procedures just so I can pay with a card. But then I realized that I wouldn't even buy a cell phone in a place that looked that iffy.
I still wonder how important it really is to floss daily. Is it like a "must" rule or more like a suggestion. As a mother, I try to take this sort of universal advice seriously. 
At first I tried to treat all of them very seriously because some of them really do make sense but when you start paying attention, you'll realize how surrounded we are by rules. Never leave a baby alone in the tub. Always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. Always wear your seat belt. Bathe children every day. Wash your teeth after every meal, or at least twice a day, 3 minutes. Floss every day. Test your smoke detector every week. Dust every week. Change bed sheets every week, or every two weeks. Eat fish twice a week. Do not eat more than half an egg on average per day. I could fill a page or two with rules that everyone "must" follow, or else! While some of them really are important, no exceptions allowed, this flossing thing seems like more of a suggestion. But I guess it's good for the gums so I keep on torturing myself. 
And after flossing mouth wash actually is a good idea, so torture is followed by more torture. ...And people think masochism is most widely spread among emo self-cutters.
At first I tried to treat all of them very seriously because some of them really do make sense but when you start paying attention, you'll realize how surrounded we are by rules. Never leave a baby alone in the tub. Always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. Always wear your seat belt. Bathe children every day. Wash your teeth after every meal, or at least twice a day, 3 minutes. Floss every day. Test your smoke detector every week. Dust every week. Change bed sheets every week, or every two weeks. Eat fish twice a week. Do not eat more than half an egg on average per day. I could fill a page or two with rules that everyone "must" follow, or else! While some of them really are important, no exceptions allowed, this flossing thing seems like more of a suggestion. But I guess it's good for the gums so I keep on torturing myself. And after flossing mouth wash actually is a good idea, so torture is followed by more torture. ...And people think masochism is most widely spread among emo self-cutters. 
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