August 30, 2006

A Little Less Wise

Last summer I started getting this excruciating pain on the right side of my face, it seems like it's a tooth problem, but the pain tends to move around so I never really know. This goes on for a few months (it flares up when I lie down, so I would just sit up, chew ibuprofen and then go back to sleep), and I spend most of that time dreaming of extravagant issues that exist only on the internet. It eventually stops and I don't go to the dentist, even though I have dental insurance at the time. A few weeks ago it started again, and the monstrous pain kind of settled into a wisdom tooth tucked nicely in the back (except now I have no insurance cuz I have a new job)..

So yesterday I finally work up the guts to make a dentist appointment. She pens me in for this morning at 9am (why do I say that's ok? I don't do mornings...). My alarm goes off at 6:45 to catch the 8 am bus. I shut off the alarm and sleep until 7:45. At least I get my teeth brushed, for that I give myself a gold star.

I get to the dentist on time. The nice hygenist who is about my age takes a gander at the offending tooth and informs me that there is a lot of decay. Apparantly my "Reach" toothbrush wasn't really doing it's job.

Anyway, she takes a picture, consults with Mr. Dentist, whom I have yet to meet, and he comes in to inform me that the only option is to extract it.

So far I'm doing just fine. I'm thinking, "Great, I'll come in sometime next week and we'll get this thing taken care of." While this is going through my mind, he tells me to open wide and that it's going to sting a little.

What??? Sting??? Who??? Can't we talk about this??? I am where???? Lolipops??? I didn't hear the part about the stinging. But while I'm thinking about catching the bus home he's sticking needles into my gums and puts on this goo that I inadvertently taste with my tongue causing it to go numb as well... mmm numb tongue.

It's never actually explained to me, but I guessed from the freezing that the extraction thing he mentionned so lightly was happening today. He leaves, nice nurse lady takes me to get a full head x-ray and we chat about the weather until I can't move my tongue.

She takes me back to the shockingly public room with the pain chair and the pain tools, and tells me I can watch some TV until the x-ray is developed. At this point she presses a magic button and my feet shoot into the air with my head hovering inches from the floor.

Thanks, real comfy.

So I'm lying there, feet in the air, watching a little Canada AM, wishing Seamus O'Regan wasn't on vacation, and Mr. No-Warning Dentist dude comes back in. I figure we're going to have a nice chat about what's about to happen, where ya from, where'd you go to school, let's try to put you at ease.

Nuh-uh. He tells me to open my mouth nice and wide, sticks some metal thingy in my mouth to keep me from biting his frickin' fingers off, and then I see this sharp stick thingy head towards my mouth. And just as I'm thinking, "can't this be a little more frozen?", I realize he's pulling the stupid thing out, and though it doesn't really hurt that much, I'm still kind of in shock that it's actually happened/already over. He says I'll need to have the other wisdom teeth pulled at some point and tells me to have a nice day.

While I appreciate that the dentist was probably going for the "rip the bandaid off quickly" technique, I still would have appreciated a little more warning.

Naw, probably not. I was kind of freaking out as it was. And why the heck didn't the other two dentists I've seen ever mention this wisdom tooth issue? All the last guy said was, "Gee, your teeth sure go back there far." Thanks, I'd been hoping you'd notice...

And then there we are. All done. One less tooth and a little less wise (it was a wisdom tooth, but I have a big mouth so it wasn't impacted or anything, it just decayed cuz I couldn't brush it). I think to myself as I'm paying for the non-insurance covered outing, why the heck didn't I do this last year??? All that ibuprofen for this one little tooth...

Anyway, I felt the need to share, and you were here, so I shared. And I'll probably share the next time he pulls things out of my face too. But that won't be for a while, because I probably won't get around to making an appointment for quite some time.

A-thank-you.

Edited to add: And then... found Shannon at the mall. First thing I do is buy a frappucino (since I couldn't have hot). Then I read that I'm not supposed to use a straw or drink too much. But it's a java chip frappucino, so I drink it anyway. She also said I should take it easy, so we head over to Halifax for some touring around... we only get a little lost, but I eventually find painkillers at a store. Then we go to the Economy Shoe Shop for lunch and it takes an hour to eat a lunch serving of pasta, cuz my toof hurts. Then we get ice cream (I get a milkshake... more straw) and take the ferry home. And so I can say 'then' one more time: then shannon peed in a jug.

My day of crazy was made complete. Thank-you Shannon, for being a part of it.

9 comments:

Shannon Skafte said...

SO where's the part about seeing good ol' shannon, and how great the afternoon was? and you sucking on a straw - I told you not to, and you did it anyways - and then you read it was rule... where is all that!!!????!!!!????

richmanwisco said...

Thirty minutes or so from consult to extraction sure beats my record of 9 years.

Shannon Skafte said...

AHahah a Jug!!! ahhahahah

Anonymous said...

You know, if you had made an appointment for a week from now, you would have been totally nervous and you would have over thought the whole procedure and ended up freaking out. Shannon would have had to go to the visit and hold you hand through the whole thing. So it was good that he did it in one quick episode.

And you wisdom teeth have nothing to do with actually wisdom. I had mine taken out and I'm way wiser now. Seriously wiser.

Mommy

Rebecca Jane said...

I'm glad you made it through that ordeal okay! It sounds a little scary but a heck of alot less scary than waiting and wondering when I'm going to have to get mine yanked out - i'd rather have the "rip the band-aid off quickly" treatment I think.

Emily said...

When I had my wisdom teeth removed (all 4 of them, under the gums, 2 days after Christmas) the dentist said "oh you don't need laughing gas" as he proceeded to freeze my entire face, while of course pausing momentarily to proclaim quite panickedly to his assistant "NO. NOT THAT NEEDLE!"
An hour or so later after four satisfying 'pops' they sent me on my merry way. Have you ever tried taking Tylenol 3 with your entire face frozen? That whole glass of water ends up on your shirt.......
Andrew was put under for his ...

Unknown said...

oh my emily, that sounds like a party! They seem more eager to put people under in the states... I could have been unconcious for a cleaning if I really wanted to down there...

I'm pretty lucky though, only half my tongue was frozen when it came time to eat.

Anonymous said...

See, you should have realized it was a slow day for Mr Dentist when you called and got an appointment for the very next day. He was probably sitting there that morning, waiting for ya, hoping there was more dental work he could do just to keep himself preoccupied....

"She's coming in for a toothache you say? Well, better extract it."

"The next one needs a cleaning? Well, root canals all around!"

That's the mentality of a dentist I'm sure, but then again, according to Kramer on Seinfeld, I am an Anti-Dentite, so that may have something to do with the skewed views of them.

Feel Better Ev!

Ash

Anonymous said...

FC I would have been SO mad if that had happened to me. I can't imagine those things are cheap to have pulled and he didn't even talk to you about it first?? What if you didn't have the moolah? That's my beef with dentists...