general hospital lisa locicero olivia abc
Credit: Image: ABC

When things got “scary,” the actress took comfort in those who came before.

There are two things in life that are almost always frightening: emergency procedures and dental work! Put them together and you’re almost guaranteed to be in for terrifying ride. At least you’re guaranteed that if you’re anyone but General Hospital‘s Lisa LoCicero (Olivia)!

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When the actress tweeted a stream of updates from her emergency visit to the dentist, she began by saying that she’d “never had cavities or any adult dental work and am now going in for an emergency root canal! I’m so excited!” From anyone else, we’d assume that that last bit was sarcasm… but LoCicero really did seem excited! She went on to exclaim that she feels “very grown up and mature!”

Granted, those wouldn’t be our feelings after avoiding dental problems for our entire lives, but hey, if Olivia’s portrayer wants to celebrate her tooth work instead of dread it, we say more power to her.

Granted, it wasn’t all excitement and celebration. LoCicero admitted that the procedure was a bit on the “scary” side — but she made it through with a little help from Mr. Merv Griffin himself. The dental office she went to turned out to be a celebrity hotspot. Because celebs have tooth problems too!

“So, even though our culture may be grossly over-obsessed with celebrity,” the actress tweeted, when the procedure started getting too intense, “and I could smell tooth bits burning and flying around in my face [yikes!], it was comforting to think, ‘Well, if Merv Griffin used this guy, he probably knows what he’s doing?”

And, sure, that’s valid we supposed. Griffin died well into old age at the age of 82 of prostate cancer, rather than a botched root canal… but that just led to some other uncomfortable questions. Questions like just how long had this dentist been around?

As one fan, Pam, asked, “when did Merv Griffin use him?” Aznina’s reply had us even more worried when she pointed out that “Merv’s been gone a looong time.”

Well, it hasn’t been that long. He passed away back in… *consults Google* 2007. Okay, that was 15 years ago. It wasn’t that short a time ago either. But it was fine. Everything’s fine. LoCicero made it out of surgery — eventually.

The good news is that the root canal seemed to be a success and LoCicero’s pride at having made it through was a hilariously refreshing change from most folks’ reaction to emergency dental surgery!

“Apparently that root canal took ‘three times longer than normal,'” she tweeted afterwards, “and was ‘extremely elegant.'”

Well, that’s certainly a new one for us! But then, as we all know, true elegance takes time. Plus, it earned her an odd badge of honor at a dental office frequented by a slew of celebrities.

“Not to brag,” she continued, “my tooth canals are the longest he’d ever seen, so… presumably longer than Jack Nicholson, Cher and Englebert Humperdink.”

Honestly, that’s something she should brag about as often as possible. Who else could ever claim that?

Now that all is said and done, about all we can do is thank LoCicero for taking us on one wonderfully bizarre, unexpected journey. Like the root canal itself, it was longer than we expected, but surprisingly exciting. And just to prove that the dental office she was in really was as delightfully kitchsy as she claimed, LoCicero left us with one last “(partial) pic” and the office’s wall. It would fit right in at any celeb-filled diner.

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Before you head out (and maybe make that dentist appointment you’ve been putting off for ages), how about taking a quick trip through some photos of the extensive Quartermaine family? Olivia may be a relatively new addition, but the wealthy family wouldn’t the same without her!