Here's to Root Canals

And why is the procedure called a Root Canal, anyway?

Thursday I was having trouble chowing down on my roast beef sandwich, specifically, chewing with the molars on the right side of my mouth, which is the side I normally chew on. I chew on the right, I'm right-handed, but I dress to the left, go figure. Actually that makes sense, because I dress mostly with my right hand, so things are going to be tucked away to the left...eww? TMI? Whatever are you talking about?

So I'm forced to chew with the left side of my mouth, and it works, but I have to concentrate and remember not to chew with the right, but that's easy enough because if I forget, it hurts. Pain: the great motivator.

My after-lunch coffee was not enjoyable because the hot liquid was also very painful. Apparently tooth pain caused by heat is not a good sign. Tooth pain at cold is also not good, but tooth pain at hot is a sign of something seriously wrong.

Liz picked me up at from the Bus Station then we went and picked up JE from an Art Class Liz enrolled him in. While A and I sat in the car, I amused myself by sipping the ice-cold coke left over from Liz's lunch and seeing how long I could hold the liquid in the right side of my mouth. It hurt, but it also felt good. When I finally swallowed the coke there was a brief respite from the pain before it returned, so I took another mouthful of coke and Oh Shit! It hurt so good!

When Liz returned with JE I told her we needed to go to a drug store coz I needed drugs, but instead we called our dentist and actually got in to see him at 6:30 that night. We got to his office at 5:30, had dinner at a local Boston Market (normally a good move, but this particular Boston Market sucked for some reason) which I skipped. An aching tooth quelled any appetite I might have had.

Finally we entered the Dentist's office where I still had to wait, had some x-rays taken (why do they put a lead apron over your chest/stomach when they're x-raying your head? Seriously, they're x-raying your head. If the x-rays are so dangerous that you need a lead apron over your body, and the dentist and nurse step outside during the x-ray process, THEN WHY ARE THEY X-RAYING YOUR F**KING HEAD?!?!?

So they take the x-rays and determine that I need a Root Canal. This is apparently a Root Canal I was scheduled to have a couple of years ago when we first started going to this dentist, but with the cost of work I needed to have done, and the willingness of my Insurance Co. to pay for Sweet Fanny Adams of the required work, I've been getting said required work done a bit at a time, like every 6 months, or so. This Root Canal decided it wasn't going to wait anymore and it went supernova on me.

I spend almost two hours in the chair having the inside of one of my teeth drilled out, then packed with a temporary filling. Once the drugs wore off I was pleased to note the pain had gone. I still couldn't eat using the right side of my mouth because it still hurt to bite down on that side, but thankfully I could once more drink piping hot coffee.

Before I left the dentist that night I made an appointment for Monday morning, which is a Public Holiday for me, but the dentist was still open for business. That was another two hours spent in the chair, getting the temporary filling pried out, the tooth re-drilled and prep'd, and a crown fitted, which the dentist messed up and had to carve a new crown. On the plus side, he showed me the new machine he has which actually carves the new crowns/teeth right there on the premises using sophisticated computers, cameras, 3D imagery, etc. It was all pretty cool.

Finally I got my new Crown fitted and I'm once again able to chew.

Yay!

But what a way to spend a 4-day long weekend.

On the plus side, Xinh decided that I was a Hakiu Grand Master.
Yay me!