Back when I was a kid I used to watch Soupy Sales on TV. He would often say, “Be true to your teeth or they’ll be false to you.” Soupy, why didn’t I listen?
I started feeling pain in a left lower molar a few days ago. Tooth pain seldom gets better with time.
I called my periodontist Tuesday and got an appointment for today. I was hoping some seed or other hard bit had become wedged between my tooth and gum. A little expert poking with a sharp instrument to dislodge it and I’d be on my way.
No such luck.
A dental assistant took an x-ray then displayed it and one from last year side-by-side on a monitor mounted on the ceiling.
“See the difference,” she asked?
No, but I knew where this was going.
My poor woobly tooth with its pre-existing root canal and cap was sitting atop an infection. We put it on the DNR list!
I helped pull the nitrous mask over my nose. If I was going to be in pain the least they could do was allow me to relive the sixties!
Brian the periodontist came at me with a syringe full of some sort of ‘caine’ (not co-, not nova-, possibly lyda-). He poked my gum a few times, reloaded and poked again.
The tooth didn’t put up much of a fight. A few seconds of tugging and it was out.
I went home with a mouthful of gauze and clotted blood. This called for a quick nap.
I’m mostly OK now. There’s a little soreness–not much. It was weird to shave while my left cheek was mostly numb.
I’ll miss that tooth. It’s not like we had a great relationship, but I did have a lot invested in it. Chewing won’t be the same without it!