K: So, lately I’ve been thinking about dentistry and comparing all aspects of dentistry in Japan to all aspects of dentistry in the United States. And… in case you all don’t know, I am a dentistry afficionado. Like, I have had dentistry in how many states in the United States – like three or four different states?

C: Yeah, I can think of three off the top of my head. I could maybe – so, maybe four.

K: Yeah. And… in… Nagoya, I’ve had several dentists, and I’ve also had a dentist in Osaka.

C: Yes.

K: So, I’ve had a range of dentists in Japan and a range of dentists in the United States because of my hereditary coproporphyria, it makes me have really thin – so, I had one dentist that was really into describing our saliva, and I’ll let Chad describe his own saliva, but my saliva is… thin and calcium-depleted. So… it doesn’t – and it’s also lacking an enzyme, and I forget the name of the enzyme, but you only get it from eating protein. And I can’t eat a lot of meat. Like, I have to eat meat, but if I eat too much meat it starts to affect me really badly, so I’m always somewhat anemic and somewhat calcium depleted because I almost don’t drink milk at all ever. And I don’t do a lot of dairy. I eat cheddar cheese, but it goes in runs. But this is just a weird – I’m veering off into this weird place.

My saliva, basically, is thin and depleted of enzymes and nutrients because whatever we eat – two hours after eating it, it shows up in our saliva and bathes our teeth in it. So, it breaks down into whatever enzymes and proteins and vitamins it has – your teeth get bathed in that, and it gets absorbed into your gums.

C: So, your saliva is almost water.

K: Yeah. Pretty much.

C: Yeah. And, like cats, they have to eat meat for taurine. It’s not taurine that you need, but there is a specific amino acid that your body cannot produce that most people’s bodies do produce.

K: Yeah.

C: So, yeah.

K: Versus your saliva, which is

C: My saliva is thick and ropy.

K: Yeah. Like, the dentist said it like he was getting a chubby.

(laughter)

K: He absolutely loved your saliva.

C: Yeah, he’s like, “this is bathing your teeth in a protective cover. Why are all of your teeth have cavities are falling apart?”

(laughter)

K: Yeah, I think there must be an absorption issue.

C: No, it’s not. No. It’s from when you and I first got together. I took a drug called carbamazepine for a couple of years.

K: Oh, yeah.

C: And one of the known side-effects of that is that it destroys your teeth.

K: Yes.

C: So, that’s been fun.

K: Yeah. I forget about that horrible seizure medication. So, the CBD oil is just – random update on that – is working far and away better.

C: Yeah.

K: Although you haven’t been sleeping well lately.

C: Yeah, but… I think a lot of people have trouble sleeping. I feel like it gets me 90% with very few side-effects.

K: So… what’s your dental experience You’ve had dentistry in… three states?

C: No, more than that because I moved around as a kid.

K: Yeah.

C: So, counting childhood dentistry, I think it’s like 12 states.

K: Okay. And how many of those were military dentists?

C: Most of them.

K: So, your experience is primarily with military dentists and our one dentist in California.

C: Two dentists in California. One before I met you, and one after we met.

K: Okay. And here in Nagoya, I know you’ve gone to at least two different dentists.

C: I’ve gone to three dentists in Nagoya.

K: Oh yeah, now three because you’re on your third one.

C: Yeah.

K: I’m on like my sixth or seventh one.

C: Yeah.

K: Yeah. Because I’m obsessed with dentistry – and specifically obsessed with cosmetic dentistry.

C: Right.

K: Because I believe I’m going to lose all of my teeth at some point in time.

C: Well, and you’re very sensitive to Novocain and different things, so you have to worry a lot more about how the dentist works than I do.

K: Yeah. I do. And… so, I have one dentist that does really nice cosmetic work that I go to when I need a filling done in my front teeth.

C: Mhm

K: And I need it done cosmetically, and I really like her because she doesn’t use any Novocain or any sort of numbing agent whatsoever. If it’s not near a nerve. And, so, those superficial cavities, she just does them without any painkiller.

C: I find that’s pretty common for Japanese dentists. I haven’t had that gave me so much that I had that numb feeling on my face. The dentists that we had in California, it’d be like three or four hours of numbness and fuzziness on your face after any work.

K: Yeah, I felt like he would put so much – because he would put five or six shots of Novocain

C: Yeah.

K: Like, if he was working – because I remember he… did a crown in one of my front teeth. Beautiful work, but to do that crown he numbed the inside and outside. So… so painful to get Novocain shot into the roof of your mouth.

C: Yeah.

K: And he would do it in two places in the roof of my mouth. And it was so painful. And they’d do that numbing cream that they put on before, but it really, really hurt. I can’t stress enough that it was so freaking painful.

C: Yeah. He had that technique – he’s not the only dentist who’s done this, so I know this is something they teach dentists – he would put the numbing cream on it, and then he would like grab your cheek with latex gloves on and just shake it like he was trying to rip your cheek off.

K: But like overextend it.

C: Yeah, like he was trying to rip your cheek open.

K: Like overextended as if you were skydiving.

C: While he was doing the needle. I’m like… “I could still feel that the needle hurts. What you’re doing to me hurts worse than the needle.”

K: Yes.

C: “But I can still feel that the needle hurts.”

K: He was so heavy-handed that I would use lip balm, like make sure that my lips were really, really juicy. Because I suffer from chapped lips, and there have been times that, even with my lips being super juicy, he’s caused them to bleed profusely.

C: The suffering is real.

K: Yes. And then… so, he would do – for the tooth in the front, he did two shots in the roof of the mouth, and then he did one for good measure under my tongue. Into the lower – and I didn’t know why he was doing that

C: (laughs)

K: And then he put a shot way back behind my wisdom teeth at the time – I don’t have my wisdom teeth anymore but – behind my wisdom teeth. Two shots up and down mid-way and then… two more. So, that’s… six, seven eight, nine different shots of Novocain. And… like… I kid you not, my ear was numb.

C: Yeah.

K: And that is – he’s the only dentist I’ve ever gone to that my freaking ear

C: (laughs)

K: Was numb, and my neck. There were times I was like, afraid – I told you “I think my face is going to be paralyzed.”

C: Yeah, you would. You’d tell me “I think – I think he paralyzed my face.”

K: “I think he hit a nerve.”

(laughter)

K: Because it was just like – it was so severe. And then the only thing I could eat – and he is so heavy-handed that I would have to get Vicodin and have to take Vicodin for like a week afterwards.

C: Yeah.

K: And it was just – I would just be in pain. Just in agony afterwards.

C: Yeah.

K: and he was really quick to go straight to… what’s it called? Root canal.

C: Yeah.

K: He was always just like “let’s just strip the nerve. You’re going to need more fillings in this tooth if I do this. Let’s just get to the end.” And, so – I really liked him because he did really good cosmetic work.

C: Yeah. So, I find Japanese dentistry to be much more… conservative. And… I think that might be a function of insurance because I knew people who had insurance in the U.S., and the dentists were very conservative because they would do what was paid for by the insurance but not more.

K: Yeah.

C: So, if they thought that something was going to turn into a problem later, they would deal with it later.

K: Yeah.

C: And Japan tends to be like that. I recently had a… tooth abscess, and it took five or six visits to get it resolved.

K: And you’re still in that process. You have one more visit.

C: Yeah. So, we’ll see the – because they want to see me and make sure that everything is clearing up because I’ve got a big hole in my jaw, apparently. But… each time, it would be like a ten-minute appointment. He would do one little step, and then I’d pay about 5 dollars and then come back a week later.

K: Yeah.

C: Rather than trying to get everything done all at once.

K: Yeah.

C: I think all together, it’ll currently end up costing maybe 80 dollars.

K: Whereas in the United States, every dentist we’d ever been to, that would’ve been three visits and a couple of thousand before deductible.

C: Yeah.

K: And our – the insurance we had at the time in the United States, it would’ve ended up to be about a thousand dollars for us.

C: I didn’t have the insurance.

K: Okay, for me, the insurance I had.

C: Yeah.

K: It would have ended up costing us about a thousand dollars at the end of the day. For me, the best dental experience I’ve ever had was… in Montana.

C: Mhm.

K: I absolutely really thought about living in the state of Montana. Everybody I met in Montana was just a really… beautiful, welcoming, gracious… humble, kind, generous person. And, like, the anesthesiologist invited me out to their farm to go horseback riding for free. The… dentist gave me, like, all the best restaurants to go to, and if there was any difficulty just say – mention his name – and they would be sure to welcome us. And they were just so lovely. And the dentist office, right on the dot of my appointment time they let me in, they put me in a chair, laid me back, and had a movie screen playing. And they have movies and television shows you could pick from to play during your appointment.

C: Wow. Fancy.

K: Yeah. And you could put earphones

C: Because this was pre-Netflix, so they had to have a whole setup.

K: Yeah. Yeah. They had a whole setup. And… you put your headphones in, and they were like “we’ll turn it up louder, the drill’s still going to be loud, you’re still going to hear it. But we’re doing our best.”

C: Mhm.

K: And then they give you a little nitrous oxide, and then they numb you and do… an injection, and it was just a lovely experience all around.

C: Well, now I regret that I didn’t have any work I needed done at the time.

K: You regretted it then too because I was like “this is awesome.”

C: (laughs)

K: Like, it was such an awesome experience, I wanted to move there, and you were like “no, I can’t live here.”

C: Yeah.

K: It was a really small town we were in. I don’t remember the name of it. It was a really small town, and I was like “I could so live here.” And, so, I think that if we ever moved back to the United States – which I never see happening – I would want to live in a small town in Montana.

C: We were in Billings, Montana.

K: Okay. Yeah. I’d want to – I guess, I hope it doesn’t make me sound like a snob – I think Billings is a small town.

C: Yeah, Billings is a small town.

K: Okay. Because you guys – as, like, if you’re a Musick Note, you know I suck at geography. If you’re not a Musick Note, go check out our episode on Kisstopher and geography. (laughs)

C: Yes. We have an entire episode about that. I’d forgotten that.

K: Yeah, and I’m so bad at it, and I worry that I offend people. I’m like, “babe. We need to record a geography episode” because I wanted to be able to refer to it, so people know that I’m not classist, and I’m not a snob. Because a lot of Californians have a bad reputation of being like, “California’s the best state.” Californians are as bad as New Yorkers.

C: Mhm.

K: Or like, “I’m Californian.” Because I’m always like “I’m Californian. Blahh.” And I don’t think that California is the best state in the United States.

C: See, and I think this is your dyslexia. Not your thoughts about California, but your difficulty

K: (laughs)

C: With geography.

K: Thank you for the clarification. Because I’m like “what? No. I’m not reversing it. I don’t like California anymore.” California’s a horrible state disguised as – everybody thinks that California is super progressive, and it is not. And I say this all the time – and Musick Notes forgive me for repeating it again – but come now, we elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as our governor of the state. We’ve had more republican governors than any other blue state.

C: Mhm.

K: I think. Wikipedia – I don’t know – google it. You know we don’t google.

C: No, we don’t.

K: But I like stating opinions as facts.

C: Well, they sound more authoritative when you do.

K: (laughs) I just know in my lifetime; I just remember thinking “gahhh. I’m sick of all these Republican governors.”

C: Yeah.

K: Because Republican governors tend to be law and order, and they were just slashing school funding and pumping it into the police. So, that’s like a whole negative digression that we’re not doing. We’re talking about dentistry.

C: We are. We’re going to just, like, stick to the teeth.

K: (laughs) So, what was your best dentist experience? Like, the one that you’re like… “yeah, that’s the way dentistry should be done.”

C: I can’t think of one, honestly.

K: Really?

C: I don’t think that there’s a definitive good dental experience for me.

K: Really? I’m sorry for that.

C: Yeah. So, I… I knocked out my front teeth when I was a teenager.

K: Mhm.

C: And… and went to the military generals for that. And they just kind of jammed – I knocked out one front tooth I should say – and they just jammed the tooth back in there.

K: Mhm.

C: And then I had to have that turned into a bridge later. Which… I still have that bridge, but it’s been 25 years. So, it’s probably time to get it looked at.

K: Looked at for what?

C: To see if it needs to be replaced. Does it still fit.

K: Does it fit comfortably in your mouth?

C: I can see all the edges of it, now.

K: What do you mean? Smile. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

C: They told me when I got it

K: So, what edges can you see – because here’s the thing, when I tell Chad to smile, I have a way bigger than him. I have a toothy grin. Chad’s smile is more like a pained grimace.

C: Yeah.

K: And, so… you don’t – like, you barely show any teeth when you smile.

C: Exactly.

K: But don’t act like that’s your point because it’s not. You don’t like to smile.

C: No. I don’t like to smile.

K: So, what are you talking about? Explain yourself to me.

C: So when I got the bridge

K: I demand to know. Husband.

C: They said, “we’re going to do the porcelain on the front because it’s your front teeth. So, insurance will cover that.”

K: Okay, this is the boring part of the story, but go ahead. (laughs) This is the part I already know. This is not what I’m demanding to know but go ahead and describe your bridge for everyone.

C: On the top, you can have either porcelain or metal, but if you want porcelain on the tops – on the tips of the tops of my front teeth

K: Uh-huh.

C: It was going to be like an extra thousand dollars out of pocket for me. Which I couldn’t afford.

K: So, do you have porcelain at the top?

C: No.

K: I don’t see it, but then I’m not wearing my glasses

C: Yeah, you might have

K: Now, I’m grabbing my glasses so I can inspect my husband’s mouth. Okay. So, just a tiny little grey line?

C: Yeah.

K: Yeah. I have princess crowns. They’re literally – that’s the name of them. And it’s so funny because, at my dentist, the princess crown – like, when they show you the different choices for crowns – the crown that I get is in its own little box on a cushion like a crown.

C: Yeah.

K: It is so cute. Like, an actual little – as if it was a tiara. And I’m like, yes, thank you, all porcelain. Hello. And they were so confused because I have princess crowns in the back of my mouth.

C: Yeah, you have princess crowns on your molars, and they’re like “what?”

K: Yeah, because when I smile you can see my molars.

C: Yeah.

K: You can see every single tooth in my head if you get a genuine, just like not thinking about anything smile from me.

C: Mhm.

K: It’s every tooth in my head.

C: It is.

K: It’s very, like, Joker-y.

C: And I don’t know how they get away with it, but the princess crown comes in the Tiffany-colored box.

K: (laughs) No, it doesn’t. It was on a royal blue cushion.

C: Okay.

K: In a clear box.

C: So, Japanese dentistry – I find

K: That was in Japan. In the United States, they ask you “do you want all porcelain?” And I’m like, “yes.”

C: All of the dentists that I’ve been to see… the heads of the offices – not necessarily the dentists working for them – have been trained in the U.S. So, and I know Japan has dental schools because when I was an editor, I worked with some of the dental schools on papers and things.

K: So, my cosmetic dentist was not trained in the U.S. – she speaks no English. She was trained here in Japan.

C: But she

K: And she has one of the softest touches, and she has, like, this really… really wonderful skill of doing what I think of as flake fillings.

C: Yeah.

K: It’s where you just graze the tooth, and only I can tell. Like, she can’t even see it, and I have to point to it, and she’s like “you really want me to fill this?” And I’m like “yes.” Because, once you crack the enamel, I know that I will rot that tooth.

C: Right.

K: I need it replaced, so it’s really important that I get it filled. Something that they don’t do here in Japan that I wish they do that they do in the United States is they will seal your teeth in the United States.

C: Yes.

K: There is a sealant that you can get, and I used to get my teeth sealed.

C: I had mine sealed as a kid. The military would do that.

K: Yeah.

C: They’d go in, and they’d paint them with some kind of… resin or something that would seal them for a few years.

K: Yeah. But it doesn’t – so, I stopped getting them sealed because the heavy-handed dentist from California was like “well, you know the sealant doesn’t wear off evenly.”

C: Mhm.

K: “And, so, if you continue to do this, eventually you’re going to erode your enamel, so you’re better to not do the sealant.” And that’s when I stopped doing the sealant.

C: Interesting.

K: Yeah. Because he was like, “for you, you have really thin teeth. But I still wouldn’t advise the sealant.”

C: Well, he would go and educate other dentists. He was like a master dentist.

K: Yeah. He was. And he did, like, master classes. And, so, like… in today’s day and age – he’s retired now – but in today’s day and age, he would have a YouTube channel, and he would be doing TED talks on dentistry, and he’d have his own masterclass series. Because he basically had that.

C: Yeah.

K: The equivalent of that back in… the 90s – no, back in the early 2000s.

C: Early 2000s, yeah. And all of the dentists that he referred to had trees as names.

K: Yeah.

C: As did he.

K: Because it was last name.

C: Yeah.

K: But we don’t say names, so don’t

C: We don’t say names. I’m just saying, like, every dentist

K: Because that’s their story to tell.

C: Yeah.

K: And, as Rihanna says, I’m not going to mention you if you have not paid me.

C: Mmkay. Good point. Yup. Yup.

K: So, this is – this is not sponsored. But if you would like use to talk about you on our podcast, we will. We’ll take sponsorships. Starting at a reasonable price. A hundred bucks.

C: Yeah. That’s like… two minutes of getting your teeth cleaned at his place.

(laughter)

K: Oh my god. That is so good.

C: (laughs)

K: Subtle shade, I love it. Okay, so you were saying something. You were talking about your bridge, I think?

C: Yeah. So, that was my first kind of… experience with dentistry outside of braces. So, I had braces several times when my dad was in the military.

K: Which is so weird to me because – childhood emotional neglect is a mug because there are no pictures of you with braces.

C: Which is interesting because I had them

K: There are only two – we only have two – three pictures of you from your childhood. There’s one which is your baby picture, which… I famously love because you have you hand up like “no paps.”

C: Yeah.

K: Is the joke. And

C: No paparazzi.

K: Paps is short – yeah. Paparazzi. And we shorten that to “no paparazzi” – I think I might’ve told this story before, but I just love telling it. So, Musick Notes, just sit back and enjoy the ride. There is – we had pictures of Rasta put up, and they had stopped – all the pictures in the house that we had up – stopped at about age 10. And, when Rasta was 12 and 13, he had a major meltdown that we didn’t love him because we didn’t have any pictures from 9 to 12, and that’ snot true, we did, but they were digital.

C: Yeah.

K: At that point. And before that, we didn’t have access to digital media. So, I was like, “look, babe, we have pictures of you from every year.” And he’s like, “but there’s none in the house. So, you don’t love me.” So, I was like, “okay. You think I don’t take enough pictures of you because I don’t love you.” So, I would like get up at three o’clock because I have insomnia – if I was up at three o’clock, I would throw open his doors, and turn on his lights, and take pictures of him and tell him “it’s the paparazzi. The paps.”

C: (laughs)

K: And I said it so much it just started turning into “the paps” and I took pictures of him every single day for like three months. And he started – he broke down one day and started crying. He’s like “I’m sorry I said that to you. Please stop taking picture of me.” And I’m like, “but I’m having so much fun.”

C: Right? Nowadays, we’d have a YouTube channel of him saying “please don’t take anymore pictures.”

(laughter)

K: Yeah. We could submit that to America’s funniest home videos. So, he didn’t really cry. He was just like, “can you stop now?”

C: Mhm.

K: And I was – I did it for a month after the “can you stop now.” I had to ween myself off it.

C: (laughs)

K: So, about a month and a half in, he was like “you’ve made your point. Can you stop?” And I was like, “I’m going to have to ween myself off it because I’m really enjoying this. Like, really enjoying this.”

C: Yup. Digital cameras are fun.

K: Yeah, and it’s fun – like, I like annoying him. When he’s annoyed me, I like annoying him back and bringing home – because I – he just would randomly accuse me of neglecting some aspect of loving him.

C: That’s so interesting. You know, digital cameras have come a long way since we moved to Japan.

K: (laughs) How’s it interesting? I like that fake segue. Okay, digital cameras.

C: Yeah.

K: Because we had a – we had a digital camera in the United States.

C: Yeah. That took three and a half inch floppy disks. And then we got replacements that had their own internal storage, but we had to hook them up with these cables and things.

K: Yeah.

C: I was thinking that, when we left,

K: We had – we’ve had every iteration of a digital camera.

C: When we left the U.S., getting x-rays at the dentist was like, you would go, and you would get the x-ray, and it would take twenty to thirty minutes to develop them.

K: No, our dentist was one of the first ones to have the automated – what everybody has now – where you sit

C: The panoramic camera.

K: In the panoramic

C: Yeah.

K: So, right before we left, he had that stuff 15, 16 years ago.

C: Well, it was still physical film. You would still put the film in your mouth, and then he would develop it right then.

K: Mm. Yeah, I remember that.

C: They’d say “bite down” the cardboard with the

K: Yeah.

C: And, now, it’s just all digital.

K: Yeah.

C: I don’t put anything in my mouth. I just go and…. So, anytime I switch dentists, an extra 50 dollars to have the full x-rays taken. But it’s like five minutes.

K: Yeah.

C: And, so, I really like that. I think that’s probably the case in the U.S., too.

K: Yeah.

C: Although it’s probably a lot more than the cost here, but.

K: I find that getting an appoi – a quick appointment at the dentist here varies. Like, in the United States, it was much easier if I went to my dentist regularly to get an appointment.

C: Mhm.

K: Because there seemed to be like preferred client appointments held out. Because our dentist was busy

C: Right.

K: But, here, it’s – my preferred dentist is really hard to get an appointment with them. My cosmetic dentist. And she’s like, limiting her hours. I think she’s on the verge of retirement.

C: I think so. And I think the other thing is that we’ve talked about those before in the medical context, but because of the way that things are paid out, if you want to make significant money as a doctor or a dentist, you have to run it as an efficient business.

K: Yeah.

C: You can’t just get big payouts for dentistry, so most of the successful dentists won’t have five or six dentists working for them. And, when you schedule, they will just schedule you with whoever’s available.

K: Yeah.

C: and you insist on “no, I want you to do my dentistry.”

K: (laughs) Yes.

C: And, so, I think that’s why you have scheduling difficulties because I never did at the same clinic, but she never worked on my teeth.

K: Mm. You never had

C: No. Her husband worked on my teeth, and their dentists who worked for them worked on my teeth, but she never did.

K: So, I’m still in the process of having an implant done. And the implant procedure is so – the main thing besides it being way cheaper in Japan – the implant is not way cheaper. It’s out of pocket 100% not covered because it’s considered completely cosmetic. It’s one of my front teeth that doesn’t impair functioning.

C: It’s considered cosmetic because they would pay for a bridge but not an implant.

K: No.

C: They won’t even pay for a bride?

K: No.

C: That’s brutal.

K: So, I don’t know if you guys have noticed listening to the podcast. Chad likes to just very – what I think is a tad arrogantly – correct me when I say stuff not knowing anything about my context or having ever gone with me to my dentist.

C: Well, I like to take an authoritative tone.

K: (laughs)

C: Because if you don’t take the authoritative tone, people think you don’t know what you’re talking about.

K: So, like, I like to say things as fact. Chad likes to correct me as if he knows anything.

C: Exactly.

K: So, when it comes to my dental procedure, I would just like to put out there in the universe: Chad knows nothing of which he speaks when he talks about my dentistry. He does not go with me to the dentist, he’s never – he just admitted – we have for all of prosperity he’s never had any work done by my dentist. So

C: Do you hear these biting remarks?

K: Yeah, so I’m putting it out there in case you like try to put out some propaganda about my dental lived experience.

C: Mm. Okay.

K: Yeah, so I’m just setting up this (laughs) random baseline. I’m just destroying this random

C: “You will not mislead the people about my dentistry.”

(laughter)

K: You will not. You will not tell the folks. I am way too serious about dentistry. It’s a thing.

C: It is a thing, and you told me when we met that it was a thing.

K: Yeah, and I like

C: You asked me “do you like going to the dentistry?” And I was like “no.” “Do you think it’s weird that I do?”

K: And I was like, “it’s not so much that I like it, but you’ve got to do it.”

C: Yeah. I agree with you that you’ve got to do it, but I still put it off even when I know I should go.

K: Yeah, and so… I don’t bug you about dentistry because you have a bridge. And it’s one of those things you asked me – you said – you showed me your smile. And I was like “is that your real smile? Is that your biggest smile?” And you were like “It’s hurting my face I’m smiling so hard.” 

C: Yeah.

K: Which you have in every picture.

C: Which you learned later is the truth.

K: Yes. (laughs) I was like, “okay, Chad, showing a little bit of teeth.” And his smile is the exact length of his bridge, which I think is weird. So, I don’t really – unless I’m asking him – I have this weird thing where I’m like “I need to look at your teeth.” And he’s like “why? I’m not going to the dentist. We’ve talked about this. You’re not a dentist.”

C: Yeah. Yeah.

K: “You cannot actually decide” (laughs)

C: You cannot.

K: “When I go” but I was like, I can have opinions. And you said, “well, if you don’t look at my teeth, you will have your opinions.”

C: This is true. And you say “my bridge” but now I have several bridges.

K: You have several bridges?

C: Yeah. I’m like the Bay Area. I have multiple bridges.

K: Really?

C: Yeah.

K: When did that happen?

C: That happened a couple of years ago.

K: I’m so not dutiful.

C: I was missing a tooth for a while, and then I went to a dentist, and they said, “why don’t we just put a bridge on it?” And so

K: I didn’t know that’s what you decided.

C: Yeah, that’s what I decided.

K: I thought you were still missing a tooth there.

C: Nope.

K: You finally decided – because It old you it’s bad for your gums, it’s bad for the rest of your teeth.

C: Yeah. So, I have a bridge there to keep my teeth in place.

K: I’m not a dentist… but your dentist agreed with me, so maybe I know a little something about dentistry.

C: Mm. They didn’t agree with you about the gums part because it’s weird. So, my front bridge is full teeth, but my back bridge, the missing one, is just literally a little bridge been the other two. So, there’s a gap underneath it about the size of a grain of rice.

K: And, so, you think that I think that it’s damaging your guns by not having something pressed against your gums?

C: Exactly. 

K: No, I’m saying that it’s caused the root of your teeth to shift. And that damages your gums.

C: Mm. Yeah.

K: Which your dentist agrees with me on. Wapow. I’m doing karate motions. Chop, chop. Chop. Wapow. Wapow. Knowledge. I whipped it on you.

C: You did. If that had been real, I’d be missing even more teeth now.

(laughter)

K: No, it was not violence. It was just whipping knowledge on you.

C: It was just “wapow wapow”

(laughter)

C: Non-violent wapow wapow karate. (laughs)

K: Non-violent. Non-violent. Knowledge shops that whip you into shape.

C: Okay.

K: (laughs) That teach you how to think.

C: So, now it’s not just chops, it’s whipping.

(laughter)

K: Into ship.

C: Whipping into shape.

K: Mentally whipping you into shape.

C: You’re going to whip it. Whip it good.

K: Yes. Oh my gosh, that’s when I know we’ve gone too far.

C: (laughter)

K: When Chad makes a bad 80s song reference.

C: (laughs)

K: That is so awesome. So, I feel like I should flash him

(laughter)

K: So, I’m literally flashing Chad right now because that’s where this sequence – that’s where this sequence ends.

C: That’s how good the joke was.

(laughter)

K: No. It was not a good joke. Ja – Jad – Chad knows that I habituate. I was mixing habituate and Chad. Chad knows that I habituate, so there are certain things that he has made in over the years – he’ll say, “show me your boobs.” And then I’ll show him my boos, and the thing ends, and he walks off. So, I’m like “okay. The end of this sequence is I showed Chad my boobs.” So, thank you for not walking away. (laughs)

C: You’re welcome. We’re in the middle of a podcast. 

K: So, nobody else – just for the record – no one else could habituate me to show them my boobs. That doesn’t work. It’s you and I in a safe and loving and consensual relationship. So, consensual habituation. And you think how strongly I habituate is a trip to you.

C: It is interesting to me, yeah.

K: I don’t know why. It’s weird and interesting to me, too, but I don’t know why. I develop, like, these quirks, and then they stick with me. So, I wish I could be habituated to study Japanese. That would be awesome. So, I don’t have any useful habituations. I have like flashing Chad habituation

C: I think going to the dentist is a useful habituation.

K: Yeah?

C: If your mouth hurts the slightest bit

K: No, I go to the dentist.

C: You go to the dentist.

K: Yeah.

C: If my moth hurts, I’m like “let’s see how it’s doing in a month.”

Yes. And… even if your mouth hurts, and your dentist doesn’t force you to go back, I have to tell you “Chad. Go back to the dentist.”

C: Yeah.

K: And you’re like “okay. I’ll go.” And I’m like “when?” But now it’s easier because your dentist is literally a five-minute walk from our house.

C: Yes. It is much easier.

K: So, I don’t know if they’re any good, though. I’m not liking your process.

C: I’m not sure if they’re any good, either, but they’re not hurting me, so…. And I was in a lot of pain when I went to see them. I was in so much pain, I wasn’t even sure if it was on the top or the bottom.

K: Mhm.

C: And so, they took x-rays and looked at it, and they said, “I think it’s this one.” And they drew a hole through the tooth and drained it. And I was like “okay, yeah, that’s the one.” And then they’ve been working on it since then just very, very slowly.

K: Do they do braces or whitening?

C: They do whitening, but I don’t remember if they do braces.

K: So, the next time you go – you have one more visit, right?

C: At least one more.

K: Check and see if they do braces because our son Rasta had to have – oh, his own dentistry journey. Rasta has a dentistry journey, and you know we don’t tell other people’s stories, but we tell his.  I don’t know if we mentioned this before, but when Rasta was born, he had an extra tooth in his mouth that laid across his teeth which would have caused all of his front teeth to come in the middle of his mouth, and he had, where his jaw protruded too much forward – I think that’s an overbite?

C: It’s an underbite.

K: I think it’s an overbite.

C: It’s an underbite, trust me. Because I had an overbite. My overbite was severe enough that you could stick a finger between my top and bottom teeth.

K: I can’t even push my jaw that much forward or behind.

C: Yeah.

K: Every time you say it, I try.

C: Yeah.

K: And, like, I don’t know what I’m thinking. Like I’m going to have some extra jaw dexterity someday.

C: He had an underbite but with cross-occlusion, so there were parts that were overbite and parts that were underbite.

K: So, he had to have oral surgery. And the dentist who did his oral surgery also did his braces. And he had braces for four years?

C: In total. Not all at once, but in total.

K: Because he had braces in the United States and braces in Japan.

C: That’s right.

K: But his orthodontist here in Japan was trained in the United States. So, he had braces, then he had them removed knowing that he would need a second round of braces. And he got his second round of braces. And now he has one eye-tooth that is sort of starting to rock backwards.

C: Yeah.

K: And, so, I’ve had several times very expensive retainers – Invisalign – and he keeps using them and not taking them. And the Japanese dentistry – their cosmetic level is not up to United States standards for cosmetics, and they’re like “it’s just a little recessed. It doesn’t matter.”

C: Yeah.

K: But, for me, I’m like it makes it harder for him to floss. It makes it harder for him to brush it. I’m worried that that tooth is going to be more discolored or less discolored.

C: It makes me understand the British teeth better – how people are always making fun of the British teeth – because Japan is very much the same way. The dental insurance covers enough to make sure that you can eat and talk.

K: Yeah.

C: And that’s pretty much it. Beyond that, you have to pay.

K: Well, and there are people Rasta’s age – Rasta once dated this girl who couldn’t eat meat because it hurt, and no one had given this girl braces. And they were the same age. I think Rasta was 21, 22 at the time?

C: Mhm.

K: So, or maybe a little bit younger, I don’t know. And that was so weird to me. To me, that seems like neglect because, in the United States, that’s one of the things a child can be removed from the home for because – I have to be up on all of the laws, and that’s considered one of the thrive points in the chart. Which I think is classist and racist because not everyone can afford to get their kids braces. And they’re saying, “just do it on Medicare”

C: Yes. You can have your kids taken away from you because you’re poor. And that’s, yeah, that’s a different episode.

K: Yeah. So… Rasta had two different dental surgeries. He had one dental surgery to have the tooth removed, and then he had another dental surgery to do something with the teeth that were there, but I don’t remember what it was for exactly.

C: Yeah, I don’t know.

K: Because the one where he had the tooth removed was not the same place that he did his braces.

C: Right.

K: And then he did another surgery, and I remember – I felt so bad because he was like “I want my mom” when he was waking up from the anesthesia. It was really traumatic. I’m like, “I am your mom.” “No, you’re not.” And he was fighting me to get off. I was like “I’m your mom, baby.” And I started crying. It was horrific. It was just one of the worst experiences of my life, and he doesn’t remember it. And like a good mother, I’ve asked him. (laughs)

C: Yeah. “Do you remember when you didn’t recognize I was your mom?”

(laughter)

K: I just asked him “do you remember your dental surgery?” And he’s like “no. I don’t.”

C: Mhm.

K: I think that was back when he was 7?

C: Sounds about right.

K: He struggles to really have any clear memories before about age 8.

C: I think most people do.

K: Unless they were neglected or abused.

C: Yeah.

K: And then you can easily remember abusive episodes or non-abusive episodes because they’re so outside of the norm.

C: Yeah, but I think most people had a normal, happy childhood. Just kind of… it’s just kind of all a golden haze.

K: Ow. I’m just – I lifted up the mic and resituated myself, and I think I threw my back out.

C: That’s no good.

K: Right? Oh my gosh, getting old sucks. No, I’m having a lupus flare, so my muscles are so inflamed and tense that I have to be really careful how I move. So, that’s no good. One thing to note is that the process for an implant – I don’t know if it’s the same as it would be in the United States. (laughs) I don’t know why that’s important to note, but I just think it is. I say “it’s important to note” so much that I’ve beat it out of my writing. Because y’all know I’m going through my PhD – all y’all Musick Notes – and if I write “it’s important to note” every single time, my chair writes “why? Why is this important to note?”

C: Well, they don’t write that anymore because now I take it out when I edit you.

K: Yeah. But sometimes I leave it, and I tell you “leave it in.”

C: Yes, you do.

K: “This is important to note because” and then she’s like “interesting fact, but is it really relevant? Is it relevant to your research questions?”

C: (laughs) “This is important to note because and it is relevant because”

K: Yes.

C: “I will keep that note.”

K: Yes. I’m like, this is important and relevant to the research at hand. And then I’ll work the research in and say why. And then she’ll be like, “this seems a little bit long. I wonder if we can cut this?”

(laughter)

K: So, she is like “no, girl, what interests you is not important to note.” And it had gotten so bad that one time, I was like “I know what interests means, unimportant.” And she was like “aww. If it’s relevant to your research questions – directly relevant – and serves to make a point that is groundbreaking, then it is important to note.” And she wrote this really long thing, and it’s like “your interests are really fun, and you’re a great writer, but at the end of the day: no. It is not important to note.”

C: When I was editing papers, though, I would see comments from reviewers where the author had written “surprisingly”, and the reviewer would write “I was not surprised.”

K: (laughs) It’s so like that. It’s like “this is not important to me.” And my co-chair. Oh, my co-chair really does not like “it’s important to note” because he will come – oh, he’s full-on. I did something – oh, I had too many initializations. And he literally, for every initialization, he wrote “and another one, and another one”

C: (laughs)

K: “These are the only two things that should have initializations in your paper, and any more than that is excessive.” I was like, “cool. Got it.” And then he went through and highlighted every single one, and he wrote “and another one.  And another one. And another one.”

C: I felt like you were being restrained because they were only two letters.

K: Right?

C: Because I had one client that I worked with on a regular basis because it took years for his papers to get published. His initializations were eight letters long.

K: Oh my gosh, I remember that.

C: And they all started with the same letters.

K: DDS?

C: Hm?

K: DDS?

C: They were all IPPS.

K: (laughs) That was a Chad “reign it in.” Because you will like

C: Yeah. For the dentist.

K: Yeah.

C: Got it.

K: Because you would just come in the middle of my digressions and be like “and back to our topic.”

C: Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

K: But no, say what you were saying. Don’t leave them hanging. Or should we leave them hanging and discuss it

C: I think we should leave them hanging, yeah.

K: And be like “follow us on over to Patreon if you want to know what Chad was going to talk about.”

C: I think so.

K: But any time we do that, we – real talk – we don’t talk about that.

C: No. No.

K: (laughs)

C: But shh. Shh. Don’t – don’t reveal our secrets.

K: So, tell the people now – yeah, don’t leave them hanging. Because we’re not doing that. So, okay. I am going to mention someone by name.

C: Okay.

K: Caldwell. Only Caldwell will know who I’m talking to because Caldwell is most famously known by a different name. And hardcore fans of Caldwell will know. And I know that you don’t like being called Caldwell, so I’m doing this to protect your privacy, but they have a podcast with someone else who I won’t mention. To protect their privacy because we only tell our own stories. And they do video on YouTube of it for

C: Okay, I know who you’re talking about now.

K: Yeah, for the first six to ten minutes of it, and then it just goes to audio. And then you have to go to Patreon to see the video. And here’s the thing: the video is just them sitting across from the other person and talking, but I think it’s working because I want to become a Patreon just so I can stare at them

C: (laughs)

K: Because I’m lowkey a little obsessed with them.

C: Mmkay. That’s what podcasts are good for. So, are you obsessed with us?

K: Completely. And I hope all our Musick Notes are obsessed with us.

C: Yeah, I was asking them, not you. But thank you for answering.

(laughter)

K: I think it’s important to know I’m obsessed with us.

(laughter)

K: If they’re not, they should be. And why – oh my god, I thought you – I thought you were asking me. I honestly thought you were asking me. That’s so – you’re ridiculous. Or am I ridiculous in this instance? Well, on that ridiculous note. We’re going to sign off you lovely, lovely Musick Notes. And if you’re a first-time listener, welcome to the fam.

C: Yes.

K: Welcome to the song? Welcome to the beat?

C: Welcome to the symphony.

K: (laughs) No, but then wouldn’t that make our fans players rather than notes?

C: You don’t think our fans are players?

K: Some of them might be, but others might not be.

C: Mm. Yeah. But they’re also notes. Or they could be staff because there’s also staffs in music.

K: No. Music Notes.

C: Okay, yeah.

K: Our fans decided on Twitter that that’s what they wanted to be.

C: They did.

K: And we have to respect our fans. They like Musick Notes.

C: They are.

K: And thank you for being a fan. Thank you for being a listener. We really appreciate the support. Every listen matters, and we love it. And we’re so happy that we’re spreading through Europe right now, which is really exciting. So, it’s exciting to me because we have like three new countries in Europe. I think like Switzerland, Austria, and the other one I can’t remember – I feel really bad – off the top of my head.

C: Yeah.

K: But we welcome all our listeners around the globe, and we really appreciate those who believed in us from the very beginning in Japan, and those who believed in us from the very beginning in the U.S. – that’s where our listenership started. So, thank each and every one of you for sharing your time with us and lending us your ear. To see what we’re going to talk about. What wacky thing we’re going to talk about or kind of talk about.

C: Yeah.

K: But I think today we did really good staying on topic.

C: We did. Yeah.

K: Yeah. I think almost all of our digressions were related.

C: I think so.

K: (laughs)

C: Gave people lots to chew on.

K: Like the paps and the initializations. Those are so related. (laughs)

C: Completely.

K: I hope you’re having a good life and a good time and talk to you next week.

C: Bye.

K: Bye.