Of Dental X-Rays and College Theses

I'm no stranger to dental offices; ever since I was a little kid I've been in and out of the dentist's chair. If it wasn't braces, it would be a root canal. Wisdom teeth extraction. Prophylaxis (which always provided a quick laugh or two, bringing up images of teeth condoms. But I digress), at the very least.

I've gotten so used to the dentist that I sometimes fall asleep on the chair, even while they're performing some painful stuff on my teeth and gums. No anesthetic; I just get pretty relaxed. The sound of the drill is soothing--at least to me.

Anyway, this past weekend the family (daddy, mommy and the kids) was in the office getting a regular teeth cleaning. I got my dental x-rays done as well. Now, I remember dental x-rays taking a long time; they would do the x-ray, and then send them out for processing. After a couple of weeks they would call me back, show me the x-rays, and then tell me I needed more stuff done (boy, was I a gold mine for dentists everywhere).

Now? It's all computers, baby. My x-rays were ready on the screen as soon as they took the bite wings out of my mouth. Nothing surprising, really, but it got me thinking: boy, this would've been a great thesis way back in my senior year. Instead, we came up with a pathfinding algorithm. Nothing sexy, just a lot of coding, but it did the job, and managed to graduate.

Still, though, imagine if we had done this back then! Oh, it would've been an expensive thesis, and I believe the school would've owned it (so we wouldn't have made any money, really), but it would've been so exciting! So groundbreaking!

Oh, well. Shoulda-woulda-coulda. At least the x-rays showed that I didn't have any cavities.