I woke up this morning with an aching tooth. This pain has been going on since before Christmas. Well, if you want to be fair about it, it has been going on for a long time, it just came to a head this morning.
I awoke with a headache and my tooth was killing me. I don't like to complain and I like to think I have a slightly above average tolerance for pain, but one thing I don't like is mouth pain. It might have something to do with the fact that when I was a kid I was climbing the walls in the bathroom at the county's rec center when I slipped and fell right on my face. Many stitches and liquefied foods later I healed, but I still remember that day like it was almost twenty years ago.
Anyway, I had had enough of the pain this morning and decided to call the dentist. Luckily he had an availability in the late morning.
I arrived at the office, and explained to him my discomfort. He had his assistant x-ray my mouth and several minutes later we were discussing what the problem might be. He thought it could be the deep cavity I had filled several years ago. I explained that the pain shoots up into my jaw and that I even feel discomfort in my tongue. I told him that there was no sensitivity to hot or cold, just an ache. He asked me exactly what tooth hurt and I told him the very last one on the top right. My wisdom tooth.
I have never had them removed and they are a constant source of pain and discomfort for me. I told him to go ahead and pull it.
He gave me some novocaine and proceeded to push the tooth around to loosen the root. The way you can feel the pressure but not the pain is an unsettling experience in my opinion. It felt like a cloth being torn apart. It was quite an odd feeling, but I am glad it wasn't painful. Which reminded me of the last time I visited his office and requested no novocaine for a cavity. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking.
Everything went fine. It only took a few minutes from the time I was numb to the time I requested to see my tooth. Not what you would expect to see as a root. It looked more like a pyramid, or an ice cream cone.
I have had a piece of gauze in my mouth since this morning. Every time I think the clot has formed I take out the gauze and within minutes I can feel and taste the blood. I thought I was good after I put G-man to bed, but when I went to take the gauze out there was a large clot on the gauze (which was soaked with blood). I have had a bowl of oatmeal and a few glasses of water today. I am effing starving, but I am afraid to eat anything as it might disrupt the clot.
I hope this wisdom tooth was the problem. If not I am going to be upset. Especially since I have no insurance and my Dentist just remodeled his office.
On the bright side I got rid of some iron and I haven't had a cigarette all day. Though I am seriously considering it.
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6 comments:
1. No novacaine? Who does stuff like that? Oh, right, me.
2. pressure without pain is EXACTLY what the c-section felt like (after the numbing kicked in and before they stitched me back up.
3. I guess bringing food home is out of the question.
4. Take the gauze out and see if you can get a clot to form without it.
Pixie- You are my hero.
Ouch. Sorry to hear about the newly remodeled office. Your bill is going to be expensive.
Nobody- It was. It cost more to get my tooth extracted than for my new guitar. I need to get insurance.
"...after the Savoy truffle."
The cigarette thing is a bad idea. The sucking motion will cause any clot you've formed to pop out.
I also had my wisdom (teeth) pulled out while I was awake. Most people get gas, or get twilighted for it. It was cool, hearing the squeaking sounds as your teeth came out of your head. I had all 4 done at once.
I've had quite a few cavities filled sans novocaine. It's not that bad. The pain is just temporary, and my doctor would always prescribe the hydrocodone afterwards. That was covered by insurance...
Here's one last tip. To heal the hole in your gums faster, instead of putting gauze, put a black tea bag back there. My doctor is from the middle east and swore by this. There are copius amounts of antioxidants in the tea, which promotes healing, and the teabag won't stick to the wound like gauze. However, your breath will smell like tea, and you keep spitting out an odd concoction of tea-blood.
No more chocolates for you.
TF- The tooth I had the dentist drill was fairly deep, I believe it was about as deep as you can get without having a root canal....or maybe it was a root canal. Either way I'm not ashamed to admit it hurt like hell.
The bleeding finally stopped last night. I lightly swished salt water. That seemed to help. I feel fine today, except G-man kicked me in the face (of course on the swollen spot) when I was changing him this morning.
I'm not much on sweets anyway, more of a savory or salty guy.
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