I am never ever going back....

Every day I get a text confirming my appointment at the dentist I’m not going to on Monday and I am not sure how to handle it. So I ignore it.

There’s history in this. Last year I suffered a hideous tooth ache which I ignored because I was too busy. Let me tell you this much, you should never be too busy to tend to toothache for a number of reasons

• Codeine , however helpful at the time is supposed to be habit forming. It also has how you say – a constipating effect.

• Toothache never just goes away like a headache or a sore throat. It’s usually there because something is broken or has a gaping hole

• Toothache makes you crazy with pain.

• Nothing is more important than your mental dental health. And as the point above attests to the two were somewhat related in my case

So eventually I went to the dentist and had to have a crown which went very, very, very wrong.

Let’s put it this way – I paid a shitload of money for more pain. Tons more pain. Even worse pain. Pain that needed prescription pain killers and 2 rounds of anti-biotics. Pain that meant I couldn’t let the dentist look in my mouth because it was too sore to open (and also I had not learned my lesson and work was insanely busy and dentist time was scarce).

Eventually when the pain stopped me from being able to speak I got a call from the dentist to ask me how I was feeling. Turned out he was calling from the airport on his way out of the country for a couple of weeks. Now to be fair, I knew he was going away – he had told me, but I didn’t think I’d still have tooth ache at that time. I told him I was fine – he suggested I go see a specialist.

It was December. Specialists are sunning themselves on islands that they have paid for out of the money we patients pay them in December.

Cut what is becoming quite a long story, short – there was no one to fix my teeth.

My friends were becoming worried because I was extremely quiet. I am seldom quiet. My teeth were killing me.

Eventually I got hold of my son’s dentist. I had stopped going to her because I didn’t want her to see how immature I am at the dentist – I wanted her to think I was a good mother – you know mature and responsible and all that which is silly because I am a good mom – I’m just scared of the dentist and it makes me cry.

So tail between my legs I went to see her and like magic she fixed me.  She said I have to go see the specialist as well and I promise I will just as soon as the new and other toothache I have is fixed.

Which brings me back to the text messages. Old dentist wants to see me to check up on my crown on Monday but I have an appointment with new (but old) dentist on Tuesday to fix my new tooth ache. Old dentist has now sent 4 texts and I am not answering unkown calls…just in case.

Complicated huh?

Anyway I don’t know how to tell the old dentist that I am not coming back. Ever. I thought of singing him Taylor Swift’s We are never getting back together but I worry that he’ll report my dental mental health to the authorities.  So I am going for the ignoring method.

Or hoping that he reads my blog.

How do you “break up” with a medical professional? Is ignoring them strong enough to make them stop calling?