"All the animals have gone mad!"

A line from "Finding Nemo" for those who have not seen the movie. That scene comes to mind every time the word "dentist" comes up. That part where the dentist wants to give his niece, Nemo as a present. Nemo pretends he's dead, the dentist goes to through him away, then the pelican flies in through the window, the dentist yells, the niece screams and chaos breaks out. Then you have the other patients in the waiting room looking through the fish tank and all they can see is the dentist running around and they can hear a little girl screaming while the dentist's tools go off. Ahh, a fun scene.

So what is it with people not wanting to go to the dentist? I mean seriously. Yes it hurts, yes it's not fun, yes it's expensive. But wouldn't you rather PREVENT something serious from happening? Really, going in every six months won't kill anyone. Maybe your pocket book though if you don't have insurance, which I can understand not always going in. But they clean your teeth, which sometimes isn't too fun but bearable, maybe you get some fluoride, which doesn't taste all that great either, but again bearable. It's not like you're going into labor or anything.

The worst part for me to see the dentist are the x-rays, they make me gag, and the shots to numb me. But again, I deal with it because I would rather prevent and have them catch anything early so I don't have huge problems down the road. I don't want periodontal disease or my teeth to fall out or end up having a root canal. All of these things plus a million more could happen. Yes, there are people who never go to the dentist and their teeth are incredibly healthy and they have zero problems. Lucky them. Most of us are NOT that blessed.

Today I almost literally had to drag my husband to the dentist. I think if I was dead, he wouldn't go and probably wouldn't take our girls. I'm big on clean teeth, healthy teeth. So sue me. What's the first thing you look at when you're talking to someone? Their mouth! Who wants to be chatting with a friend and all of a sudden see a piece of who knows what sticking out between their teeth? "What the? How long has that been there?" (Emperor's New Groove reference, also a funny scene).

All in all, prevention is key. Unless you like root canals, large dentist bills, and/or dentures. More power to you if you do!