I’m 25 and today had my first root canal – I know not something I should be proud of!
Last week I had been suffering a mild tooth ache, but pushed it off by taking pain killers. By the end of the week my jaw swelled up like a balloon and I considered doing something about it, but took more pain killers.
Eventually my work colleagues bullied me into calling the dental department and booking myself in for a check up…30 minutes later I was standing in the Hospital reception, being shown an x-ray of a huge abscess under my tooth and told I would need a root canal or the tooth removed. I was then handed an appointment slip for 9:15am on Tues 12th Dec and given two lots of antibiotics ‘Amoxicillin’ and ‘Metronidazole’ – the later being stressed that I shouldn’t drink alcohol or would be violently ill – Torture!
So after getting over the shock of not being able drink for a whole week…oh…and the abscess, I placed the appointment in my pocket, said thanks (god knows why?) and headed back to work.
Swiftly moving back into the present…its 8:15 and I have just dropped the kids off at Mandy’s (my childminder) and heading back home to contemplate my fate. I forgot how scared I was of dentists…deep breathes it’ll be ok – that’s what everyone keeps telling me, surely they are being honest and not just nice?
I try and do some housework but give up and check the e-mail instead, then go through and brush my teeth – Is it just me or does everyone do that before seeing the dentist? After a further 15 minutes of ambling around the house not really doing anything, but worrying, I go back and brush my teeth again, then look at my watch… 8:55…right time to go, so grab my coat but stop at the bathroom door – I’ll just brush my teeth one more time!
I arrive at the Hospital reception at 9:10am, check-in and get myself comfortable in the waiting area. I decided to try and take my mind of what’s to come by examining every scrap of paper that was scattered about the walls – god they are boring! Although one advert amused me – It was a picture of seven men standing together with the caption “Men come in all shapes and sizes – so do condoms!”
It seemed like forever for the display to beep and show ‘Marie Loveridge to Room D3’. I prised myself off the chair and headed to the room, wiping my sweaty palms on my coat on the way. Thankfully the lady dentist didn’t want to shake hands – maybe she could see me and just smiled while pointing towards the chair.
The worst part for me is the injections – I’m absolutely terrified. But get around this by closing my eyes when I sense its coming and have a feeling I hold my breath too, but really too nervous to remember. It’s normally in and out before I realize – thankfully. A little while later my jaw, cheek, lip and half of my tongue are numb – cool!
I won’t go into the details, mainly because I have no idea what they were, but just know that some miniature scaffold was placed around my tooth and there was a lot of drilling, poking and measuring. Almost felt like I was mother earth being probed by geologists – yes my mind was still wandering about.
The dentist was very good though, very gentle and said I could even go to sleep if I wanted as it was going to take a while. I tried to grin but it’s quite hard when your jaw is wide open and a rubber mat with various scaffolds is covering most of your mouth! But think she could see from the wrinkles on the sides of my eyes I was smiling. That’s one thing I will never understand though – why do dentists ask questions that need more of a head nod answer when you are unable to? Might be a game they play to keep themselves amused…yes that’s it I’m sure!
So we are quite a way through the procedure and I’m told the little red strips I see before me are rubber from the guttering company in Australia and that she is dipping them in cement before inserting them into my tooth – hummm thanks for that. Fairly sure now dentists have to go to construction school as well - with all the scaffold, rubber and cement they use!
It’s all over by 11:20 and I should say now I am very pleased with how it went and would like to thank to the dentist and her assistant as it didn’t hurt a bit! So maybe I won’t be so scared next time…yes I’m sure there will be a next time!
Last week I had been suffering a mild tooth ache, but pushed it off by taking pain killers. By the end of the week my jaw swelled up like a balloon and I considered doing something about it, but took more pain killers.
Eventually my work colleagues bullied me into calling the dental department and booking myself in for a check up…30 minutes later I was standing in the Hospital reception, being shown an x-ray of a huge abscess under my tooth and told I would need a root canal or the tooth removed. I was then handed an appointment slip for 9:15am on Tues 12th Dec and given two lots of antibiotics ‘Amoxicillin’ and ‘Metronidazole’ – the later being stressed that I shouldn’t drink alcohol or would be violently ill – Torture!
So after getting over the shock of not being able drink for a whole week…oh…and the abscess, I placed the appointment in my pocket, said thanks (god knows why?) and headed back to work.
Swiftly moving back into the present…its 8:15 and I have just dropped the kids off at Mandy’s (my childminder) and heading back home to contemplate my fate. I forgot how scared I was of dentists…deep breathes it’ll be ok – that’s what everyone keeps telling me, surely they are being honest and not just nice?
I try and do some housework but give up and check the e-mail instead, then go through and brush my teeth – Is it just me or does everyone do that before seeing the dentist? After a further 15 minutes of ambling around the house not really doing anything, but worrying, I go back and brush my teeth again, then look at my watch… 8:55…right time to go, so grab my coat but stop at the bathroom door – I’ll just brush my teeth one more time!
I arrive at the Hospital reception at 9:10am, check-in and get myself comfortable in the waiting area. I decided to try and take my mind of what’s to come by examining every scrap of paper that was scattered about the walls – god they are boring! Although one advert amused me – It was a picture of seven men standing together with the caption “Men come in all shapes and sizes – so do condoms!”
It seemed like forever for the display to beep and show ‘Marie Loveridge to Room D3’. I prised myself off the chair and headed to the room, wiping my sweaty palms on my coat on the way. Thankfully the lady dentist didn’t want to shake hands – maybe she could see me and just smiled while pointing towards the chair.
The worst part for me is the injections – I’m absolutely terrified. But get around this by closing my eyes when I sense its coming and have a feeling I hold my breath too, but really too nervous to remember. It’s normally in and out before I realize – thankfully. A little while later my jaw, cheek, lip and half of my tongue are numb – cool!
I won’t go into the details, mainly because I have no idea what they were, but just know that some miniature scaffold was placed around my tooth and there was a lot of drilling, poking and measuring. Almost felt like I was mother earth being probed by geologists – yes my mind was still wandering about.
The dentist was very good though, very gentle and said I could even go to sleep if I wanted as it was going to take a while. I tried to grin but it’s quite hard when your jaw is wide open and a rubber mat with various scaffolds is covering most of your mouth! But think she could see from the wrinkles on the sides of my eyes I was smiling. That’s one thing I will never understand though – why do dentists ask questions that need more of a head nod answer when you are unable to? Might be a game they play to keep themselves amused…yes that’s it I’m sure!
So we are quite a way through the procedure and I’m told the little red strips I see before me are rubber from the guttering company in Australia and that she is dipping them in cement before inserting them into my tooth – hummm thanks for that. Fairly sure now dentists have to go to construction school as well - with all the scaffold, rubber and cement they use!
It’s all over by 11:20 and I should say now I am very pleased with how it went and would like to thank to the dentist and her assistant as it didn’t hurt a bit! So maybe I won’t be so scared next time…yes I’m sure there will be a next time!
2 Comments:
Found you on skype and logged on to your blog..don't stop the 'downloading' very interesting and if your all as mad and witty then let me arrive on the 1st class option!! from some where not quite so isolated, Cornwall,UK
Thanks for the support - apologies to all for not updated for a while.
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