"how could i have 11 cavities?"
thus began my conversation with the dental hygenist. after explaning that i brush and floss every day (and even use listerine!), the hygenist explained that some people just have genetically bad teeth! (i guess going to the dentist every six months helps somewhat with that...)
oh well, i thought. anything is worth going on a mission for. besides, the dentist had told me that this marathon round of cavity filling would take about two hours--a long time, but not unbearable. and, i am leaving the country in two weeks, so i had to do it all in one appointment, and asap.
and, the hygenist had gone on a mission to romania, and she told me that before she went, she was afraid that she would have to go to a foreign dentist! in romania, she said, when you have a problem with a tooth they just pull it out!
thoughts of laying on a table in a cement room with a solitary lightbulb hanging over me as a foreign dentist yanked out my teeth with rusty pliers kept me in the chair the whole appointment.
all was well until the hygenist gave me a mask for the laughing gas to help me "relax." as i fooled myself into thinking that this noxious substance was actually helping me relax, i started realizing what a beautiful day it was, and how happy i was to be in the dentist's office! however, as soon as the dentist came in to give me my numbing shots, everything was not ok! all of a sudden i was hyperventilating, my heart was racing, and i was starting to cry! i was hyperventillating as the dentist gave me the numbing shots (six!!!), and he repeately asked if i was ok (of course i said yes...what were they going to do if i wasn't ok, send me home?).
when he was done and the hygenist came back in, i asked her to please remove the mask. when she asked if i was sick, i told her (with a rapidly numbing mouth), "i dink i ab allergic to dis duff!" of course i am not allergic, but my body was obviously having a severe reaction, and in my numbed reacted state i couldn't think of another way to describe it. i had to stand up and walk around the office for ten minutes, shaking violently with a racing heart the whole time, as i tried to get my hyperventillating to calm down.
and this was before they even started drilling!
when they did finally start drilling, the dentist became increasingly more and more alarmed at how "bad" my cavities were. "how long since you have been to the dentist?" he asked again, and i ashamedly replied, "three and a half years!" "yeah, these were probably started back then...and they have been decaying since then!"
great.
what was originally supposed to be a two hour appointment turned into a four hour appointment...it was so long, in fact, that the numbing wore off before they did the last two teeth. when the dentist asked if i wanted to be renumbed, i, unfortunately thinking that a few seconds of pain was more bearable than taking more time to be numbed, said no.
and this was a mistake.
when the dentist started applying the filling, my body was suddenly filled with unimaginable pain and i screamed and jerked. i quickly apologized (with a mouth that had been open with people's hands in it for four hours--i didn't know whether my jaw or my teeth hurt worse!), and the dentist, noticeably worried but unable to do anything about it now, said that he was sorry but they were almost done! i knew that, of course, but it didn't make the last minute any less painful, with me gripping the arm rests and hyperventilating. the pain was so bad i even started to cry, and the solitary tear did not escape the eye of the dentist, who apologized profusely but, of course, i had asked for it.
needless to say, three days later, i am still taking advil for intense mouth pain.
No comments:
Post a Comment