I'm beginning to wonder about my dentist. I don't expect him to be an oral cancer expert, but I do wish he would take what I tell him more seriously. Or at least be able to have a conversation with me. I tried refresh his memory on why my jaw is at risk, and explained that the blood supply is reduced in the jaw bone, which means the body can't mount a normal immune response there. His replay was "No, I saw blood come out of your gum when I was working. Well, I never said there was no blood in the gum. I also told him that my followups with doctors are primarily to check for delayed problems caused by radiation. He said "No, I'm sure they are checking for other things."

And it's not just cancer-related. He told me that if the floss gets stuck to just pull it out the side. I started to explain that the floss I use won't allow that, and he jumped in and started explaining to me that there is only one kind of floss. Except this time I was not speechless, and I told him I use Glide floss which is attached to a wishbone holder. At which point he offered me a sample of regular floss, which is where I was going in the first place.

I don't know what his deal is, but conversation with him seems to be him wanting to find a reason to disagree with me, for reasons I don't understand. He didn't use to be like this, or maybe there was just nothing that came up to disagree on.