Vive la Dentist! Or else!

What a relief!

My appointment was for 2:45 and I got called in at 3:20. By 4:00 the doc and I had decided he'd pull the bad icky troublesome back tooth and temporarily fix the next one forward. Yes, there had been an exposed nerve all that time, but yes, it was still able to be saved with a root canal. Doc said he wanted to finish other patients up and then get my teeth taken care of before he left for the day. Can you believe it? A dentist willing to stay late? Really late?

Bonus: he had televisions in the exam rooms, so while I waited I got to nap and then watch CSI. I got engrossed in the episode and Doc came in halfway through to get started. His assistant got engrossed in the show too, so lucky it was him messing around in my mouth.

Now I have a small mouth (shut up; I heard you think that), so visits to the dentist are rather comical for everyone save the dentist and myself. This time the doc has so loaded me up on novocaine that the entire left side of my face was numb. Even my eyeballs were affected; my left eye wasn't tracking well at all. Now that's numb! And even weirder? My tongue was half numb as well, and it kept sliding down my throat. For once I understand that whole "move the tongue/clear the airway" spiel in CPR class. I was choking on my own tongue.

But the dentist I saw was a good dentist, and so I didn't die. He patched up the exposed nerve, pulled the other badun out of there, and sent me on my way about twenty minutes after he started. I downed a couple of Advil before getting on the road and made it home right at ten p.m.

The best part? I slept without pain! I ate without pain! I woke with only a little ache going on in there! I'm still in no pain! And the way Doc was tugging on that tooth, I thought he was going to have to brace himself with his shoe on my chest; it was a stubborn one. Highly traumatic to the mouth, but I'm amazed that I'm not hurting just a day later. Really! And the Vicodin scrip he gave me sits on the fridge, blissfully unneeded.

So the moral, finally, is take care of your damn teeth. Floss, brush, rinse with something antibacterial, and GET TO THE DENTIST for cleanings. I cannot stress this enough. When the teeth get messy, the gums get infected, and you may not even feel that. I sure didn't. When the gums remain infected, you start to lose bone mass in the jaw. Lose enough of that, and any hope of implants or keeping at least some teeth is greatly reduced. I have one tooth right now that isn't bothering me at all, but feels a little loose. The docs tell me there is nothing holding that tooth in but soft tissue. It's going to come out soon on its own, and I'll begin the wonderful journey of false teeth. But for now, they tell me that the longer I can keep these teeth in my head, the better off my gums will be in the long run.

There. Now I've warned you. Go make that appointment, or get that appointment for your kiddos. Spend that money, at least on a cleaning. Find the dental college and get it done on the cheap, but do it.

Now if you lose all your teeth, you can't bite my head off.