Stray Hawkeye

I’ll preface this one by saying I keep going back and forth on if it’s a really good idea, or an absolutely, profoundly terrible one.

While I was at the dentist last week, I noticed that depending on the angle, I could look at the little glasses / visor thing my dentist was wearing (I would assume to keep any splash or bits of scrapped gunk from flying into her eyes) and see a reflection of what she was looking at.  It was sort of cool to see the different perspective on my mouth than I usually see, but especially for being able to actually see exactly what it was she was doing.  Now, I didn’t check to much, because the reflection, being on her glasses thingy, was directly over her eyes, making it sort of a weird making eye contact but not really thing that just seemed awkward.

However, it made me think that since they’re wearing these glasses/visor/headset thing anyway, they could easily put a little camera on there, and a little cheap lcd screen next to the light that they use to shine in your mouth, and you could watch what it was they were doing as they did it.  Dental Cam.

It would be especially handy for showing you which spots you really need to focus on brushing more, and why.  Or what happens when you don’t floss.  Or if there is some spot that they say they’re keeping an eye on, they could show you why.  And just for the general interest of seeing what exactly it is they’ve been doing in there all these years.

Now for if this is a really good or a really bad idea I think would depend in large part on how good or bad both your teeth and your dentist are.  If your teeth and dentist are good, I think it would be utterly fascinating, and make what’s generally a fairly dull half hour of laying around an educational experience that makes you feel more in control of and connected to your own health and care, and let you actually see first hand the results of the health choices you make.

On the other hand, I could also see where if you had some seriously bad dental issues and a dentist that was less than gentle, it could also turn into your own personally customized horror film.

I went to the dentist last week.  While most people seem to dread dentist visits, I actually kind of look forward to mine.  So, I thought I’d recommend mine in case any of my fellow Minneapolis residents, especially fellow transplants, are looking for a good dentist – Isles Dental.  They’re in Uptown along Hennepin, and they have a website, though it’s, um, a little less than awe-inspiring, but useful for getting the address and phone number I suppose.

Anyway, they’re always really nice and fairly upbeat, especially their receptionist, who may be the most consistently pleasant and chipper person I’ve ever come across.  Their equipment is new and clean and seems very up to date.  For instance, when they take x-rays, they show up on a laptop right next to you, and they can pull up past ones and compare them side by side, and show you what they’re looking at.  They’re also pretty good at having it not be painful (though admittedly I haven’t had any cavities recently, so I might not be the best gauge of that), and are good at having some pleasant conversation leading up to the exam, but letting it trail off just before you get to that whole trying to have a conversation with your mouth hanging open while someone hold a sharpened pick in your mouth thing that some dentists do.  They’re also just generally considerate of the small things like if the light is shining in your eyes, or if you need to swallow, or if they’ve gotten all the crunchy gunk out of your mouth.

Thought I’d pass it along in case any of you are looking for a good dentist.  I dig them.

On the flip side, does anyone know of a decent optometrist in the Twin Cities?  I’ve been to two different ones since I moved here, and really, really, disliked both of them.