Toothache - iameven.com
The story about the brief period before and my latest visit to the dentist.
Saturday
I wake up early Saturday morning with pain in the upper right side of my mouth. Pain in general is not great, in the face maybe even less so. I get up, find some painkillers, decide to brush my teeth and use dental floss. I fall asleep again and don't think much about it when I wake up. My hope is probably that I'll be able to clean up well and that will keep any problems at bay. The plan was to find a new dentist for a general checkup after we moved, after the summer vacation. I buy some mouth wash and do a really good job cleaning my teeth in the evening, and the next morning, and the next evening.
Monday
I wake up early again. More pain. So that didn't work. Painkillers. They work. For half a day. The pain is worse now. I need a dentist. I need painkillers. I need netflix. I need my couch. Luckily my mother in law picked up Sam earlier to play with his cousin so I get all that, except the dentist. They don't have an available slot until the next day.
Tuesday
I wake up at 07:20, not sure why, the alarm was set for 07:30. Is this an age thing? Or is it the body anticipating that I need to get up at a given time and the internal clock is fairly good in this case? I take some painkillers, and a shower, get dressed, and walk to the dentist. The weather is great and the dentist is a 15 minutes walk away. Told you I moved to a good place. I get the pleasure of practicing my penmanship by filling out a form with personal and medical history. Not sure why that isn't a digital thing since ipads exists (or my phone). My penmanship sucks and it was not a pleasure, but I'm happy to report that I got through it all.
Dead tooth
Friendly assistant. Dentist chair. Sterile, white room. Pop music playing too loudly. A hard rectangle is put into my mouth which I bite into. Edges cutting into the roof of my mouth. Hard to breath. Gag reflex kicking in. I manage to keep calm and not puke. Bonus points for me.
- Assistant: You did well with that, it's the large kind and I fumbled a bit. Let's see if we got the right area.
- She leaves the room briefly.
- Cue, the dentist.
- Dentist: I'll turn this down a bit.
- She turns down the volume on the radio.
- Dentist: I can see why you are here. You have a dead tooth. And an infection above that.
- Me: uhm
- Dentist: Trine. ("Trine" is a somewhat common Norwegian female name: 10 015 / 2 687 938)
- She extends her arm, I shake it.
- Me: Even. (While I was there, I found out that my name is less common than Trine. 7 803 / 2 737 332)
- Dentist (cheerfully): You need a root canal.
- Me: Yikes. (That was what came out of my mouth at the time, it's not a translation)
- Dentist (still quite cheerful): Don't worry.
- I worry.
- Dentist: Do you play any contact sports?
- Me: No.
- Dentist: Had any accidents? someone hit you?
- Me: Nope, not that I can remember at least.
- Dentist: Weird, the tooth seems whole and fine, it's just dead. And if nothing happened to you I can't say why it's dead, it's usually because of contact sports. I'll have to drill into it, do you want any anesthesia? You won't need it, the tooth is dead, you won't feel a thing.
- Me: Let's try without it then.
- She starts drilling, I can't feel a thing.
- Assistant: Let us know if it's painful at all, and we can always continue with anesthesia.
- Dentist: We'll need it, we have to setup a shield around the tooth, expect a small sting.
- It hurts, luckily the effect is immediate so I can't feel it after a very short while. They rig up a full cover of things over my mouth and put protective eye gear on me.
- Assistant: We use a strong alcohol if you're wondering about that smell, maybe you'd want some in you as well.
- Me: hoo earhy foh a hrink, I hink (It's hard to talk with anything in the mouth, at this point I had half a clinic in there)
- Assistant: Too early for a root canal as well, I suppose.
- I laugh, or try to, at least.
- Dentist: You must have been in a lot of pain. there is a lot in here.
- They continue to drain for 20 minutes, I start to worry about the contents of my head. They chat for a bit, ask me a couple of yes/no questions, and some that requires a detailed response, I can only shrug to those.
- Dentist: Looks empty, I'm putting in something that'll kill any infection and then I'll create a temporary cover for your tooth, and you'll have to come back in for the rest. You'll need some penicillin, we'll fight this thing from the inside and the outside. The cure is for 7 days. You can drink alcohol, that is totally fine, it won't affect the cure, I mean, if you drink at all that is, you can.
- Maybe I look like the type of person who drinks and at the time like I really needed to. She finishes the work.
- Dentist: This session wasn't too bad, was it?
- It wasn't.
Stroll
I got a prescription for a penicillin cure. There is a pharmacy at the other side of the road. I buy the tablets and something to drink. My mouth feels weird after the anesthesia. The "Awake Wellness Water" I bought isn't really doing much for me. I take the path along the coast home. It's warm and peaceful.