I went with my wife to the dentist where she was having a scheduled root canal. While she was "in the back" and I was reading a two month old Time magazine up front, she mentions to the dentist that I had a tooth that had gotten sensitive to cold, which it had. Understand I would rather have dull hatchet blows to the knee cap than a drill on my tooth, 100% of the time. Along comes Sally Rose Dental Assistant and says c'mon back. I go back. Next thing I am in the chair with the cool dentist (he really is) as he prods around with a Q-tip cooled to 23 degrees Kelvin. He hits pay dirt...beneath a crown I had done a few months ago on a cracked tooth. We collect the back of my head and whatever else exploded when he touched the Q-tip directly to my brain via a 2 gauge nerve ending. "you need a root canal" "ok" "Sally, get bla bla bla" My anxiety level rose to level red. "You mean, right now?" Needless to say...I was so close to sucking the nose-piece for their NO2 setup through my nostril that the dentist finally laughed and asked me to "unwrinkle your forehead...I think you collapsed the tube" I didn't know they use hollow swords for needles these days either. When did the Dark Ages become popular again. Did you know tooth smoke doesn't actually smell too bad? Later, after I used the same BS line on two different dental assistants to get the NO2 turned up, I was communicating with everyone with my mind...I didn't even need to speak. I was gripping the chair arm so hard without realizing it that the assistant actually pointed it out to the dentist. I saw her with my new NO2 mind powers. I stopped by Liquor Depot on the way home.
Eh, dentistry never really left the dark ages. And yes, when I had my root canal it reminded me of being on the firing range for rifle team practice. Though it was weird being reminded of shooting rifles and having two Asian women (dental surgeon and her assistant) yacking away about their plans for the weekend when I'd only been in California since leaving Tennessee for like two weeks. And yes, I hear you about raw nerves and the pain. I've found that its better to try and focus on a spot on the wall/ceiling, go to a "happy place" and stay calm so that you don't make the dentist/surgeon jumpy so they can get whatever medieval torture over with so you can go home and hit the painkillers fast. That and I never have tried the laughing gas, just local anethetic so I can drive myself home. The dentists fear ME. Hope you're feeling normal soon and once the healing's done, you'll be glad they dealt with it instead of letting it get progressively worse. That never-ending nagging pain sucks.
Thanks for the encouragement Tam, I love NO2...I care a great deal less when burning teeth smoke is wafting around. I could not imagine doing this without anti-care help.
I had a root canal about 10 years ago...never have to worry about having another....I will take a pair of pliers and rip my tooth from my gums before ever going thru that again.......
did you at least get boobed in the face by the assistant. that is de rigeur for a dentist visit. They usually joke about it and then you get smothered by d cup. makes getting drilled in the tooth and shot in the gums a little easier.... and they always glance down to see if you're catching wood. f'ing tooth vixens...
Well, the crown is not sharp anymore. The forward third or so of the crown/tooth that got the root canal had broken off during the procedure. It was sharp as heck and besides the front of my tongue that I couldn't keep off of it, it was carving the side/bottom of my tongue up. So I filed it. ...and the tooth in front of it. I'm telling ya, good ideas after hydrocodone, Guinness and some sipper whiskeys from the Liquor Depot 4-6PM taste tester event, don't seem so good the next morning. I knew I had a file on my small Leatherman, so I used it to saw/file the sharp edges on my crown, which is way harder than I thought. I inadvertantly used the tooth in front of it as a guide. Looking back, I can remember when I began to get a different and new pain. Anyone need any work done?
Geezus Jon, you'll go through exuberant lengths to insure your car is worked on by a professional, but when it comes to your teeth, you go all Crocodile Dundee on them. Stupid Dentists and all their high falutin grad-ee-ation diplomas...I can do it better with my Leather man file and some whiskey!...You a trip dude, and we are broke from the same mold...
