… well she blew and took all my money … well I’m sittin’ and I’m sittin’ and I’m sittin’ right here …
I’ve had a number of dental firsts recently. A few weeks back I had my first root canal. I liked it so much, I had three more. Then I had my first temporary filling. When they do the drilling for your root canal, they fill it with this temporary gunk that includes medication to help stem any infections from occurring. I consider that a good thing. Unfortunately, it tastes terrible, and every now and again, you get a nice burst of it in your mouth — especially when part of the temporary filling breaks away. The other unpleasant attribute of this period is that as the filling breaks away (it’s only supposed to be in there for a week or so), you end up with really sharp edges on your teeth, so now your tongue takes a beating also!
Last week, my dentist put temporary crowns on two of my teeth that are right next to each other that had undergone the root canal process previously. These are not quite the same size as your real teeth, are pretty much flat (so they don’t feel like real teeth) and need to be fitted such that your gums wrap around them. Let me tell you, it’s damn unpleasant having your gums picked at, stretched and wrapped around new teeth, especially when the anasthetic is wearing off. At least, that’s what I thought at the time.
Today, the real crowns went in. The dentist had to shave away parts of the crowns to make them fit as well as they need to, but then she did the same thing with the gums. Only this time, I didn’t have any local anasthetic in my head at all. OK, I’ll admit it, it hurt. I winced a number of times, I dug what little fingernails I have into the palms of my hands, I even yelped (sort of) once. When she was done, I thought, “alright, it’s over, that wasn’t sooo bad.” And then I rinsed and I spat out the mouthwash, along with about a half-pint of blood. Yup, it hurt, and I’m a big girl.
Next week, we do two more crowns. Then the dentist is going on vacation with all of my cash as spending money. Maybe I should marry her daughter and get it back. 🙂