Toothiness part II: I can’t feel my face

Leaving the house to go to the dentist was a very difficult thing to do. On the bus, I tried to bury my face in a book and forget that I was going to the dentist. Perhaps, I thought, if I would just read, I could forget where I was going to. It didn’t work. I couldn’t concentrate on what I was reading.

As I got off the bus, and walked up to the train, the nerves started to hit me harder. I walks as slowly as a child walking to school on the first day back from the summer holidays. I could feel the fight or flight instinct kicking in. By the time I got to the dentist, internally I was a mess. Nervous as hell (terrified would be more like it). Breaking out in a nervous sweat. Hands shaking. Yes, I know how cowardly I must be sounding right now, but I’m not going to pretend that I was suddenly overcome by a sense of bravery. Not a bit. It took everything I had not to get up and run away.

When I finally got in to see the dentist, I was told that the solution to the problem was pretty much a root canal. I had to make a decision then and there whether to go ahead and have the root canal then or come back tomorrow for one. I chose the immediate option, because I honestly didn’t think that if I had to make the trip to the dentist again, that I would be able to do it. So, I was warned how long it could take (at the shortest: 2 hours), and we began.

Although my mouth was frozen, I have to say that this was one of the most excrutiating experiences of my life. A lot of it was psychological, yes, but when it was all over, my face still felt like it was used as a punching bag. And that was while still frozen.

The actual process took 3 hours for the root canal and filling. I have been advised that down the road I will need to ge the tooth capped, but that wasn’t a priority at the time. That’s something for down the road.

I still cannot feel my face. It is still frozen. I am told that when the freezing wears off, I will be in “some discomfort”. Exactly what that means, I will find out.

I don’t know yet if I will be able to talk tomorrow. Or even in a couple of hours. Hell, at the moment, i can’t talk without sounding like I have a handicap.

I’ll update again, when I found out just how much discomfort “some discomfort” is.

Toothiness

I managed to get an appointment to see a dentist today to have my tooth looked at. The appointment, it at 2PM.
I have no idea what will happen.

Also, let us remember my fear of dentists. I hope that the dentist I am seeing is good and this won’t be a painful, horrid experience.

Wish me luck.

And then my head asplode. Or my tooth.

Last night, as I was eating dinner, my tooth exploded.
At least, that’s what it felt like.

I was just finishing off the open faced turkey sandwich from the local diner, when BAM! It felt exactly as though my tooth had exploded in my mouth. Or at least, that’s how I imagine this would have felt like. All I knew is that, I couldn’t sit still, and had to get out of the restaurant. I quickly paid, and rushed home, where I immediately quaffed a couple of extra strength tylenol, and then paced. The pain was so bad that I wanted to scream. I didn’t…although I admit to some whimpering.

My friendly landlords were kind enough to provide me with some Orajel, which helped to numb the pain long enough for me to relax some. Then the tylenol finally (mercifully) kicked in.

I was suddenly very tired. I stayed up for a while finishing off a few things (and so that i didn’t end up waking up at 3am or something silly like that). Then I collapsed into sleep.

Now, the plan is to find a dentist to help extract this tooth as quickly as possible. Of course, let us keep in mind (as I have mentioned before) the fear that I have of dentists in general. This is not helped by the fact that I expect that the solution to this problem is going to be painful. I just can’t put it off any more. A certain dentist has been recommended to me, but I they may not be open on Monday. So, I might have to settle for a more expensive, less highly recommended solution as quickly as possible just to get the problem solved.

I’ll keep you updated.