Yesterday was dominated by dental effects. I'm very slow to respond to any kind of anesthesia, so after the dentist injected me and came back in what he considered the right amount of time, I still had virtually complete feeling where I was supposed to be numb. So, he gave me some more, after which things moved quickly.
He had a nifty camera on a stick that takes a picture of the tooth. He projected it onto the tv in the room and showed me that the tooth was cracked in all 4 directions and said I was lucky it hadn't fallen apart already. (Didn't I predict that!). So, it was time to grind. And grind. No pain from that, but it was the way way back tooth and keeping my mouth open wide enough for him to work was painful enough. And, although hubby will never accept it, they told me I had a small mouth!
The sound is irritating, the drill bit that makes your head vibrate isn't much fun, and I really, really don't like the smell of burning tooth.
The flip side to being slow on the uptake for anesthesia is that it takes forever to work its way out of my system. I got the first shot at about 10:15 AM. I couldn't feel much of anything until nearly 5:00 PM. And even when feeling came back, my jaw was too sore to open wide enough for a normal size bite of food. (Which, considering the anniversary dinner with the extra chocolate souffle, might not have been such a bad thing.)
When he finished, the dentist said I'd done a 'good job.' I told him I was more concerned that he had done a good job.
But it's done, and all I have to do is baby it for 2 weeks until the permanent crown is in.
Welcome to Terry's Place. I'm an author of mystery and romance, happy to share what I'm learning, both about writing and anything I find interesting.
6 comments:
I too have a small mouth which my husband firmly refuses to believe. Hope you feel better today.
Lucky me, I have a fairly wide mouth but keeping it open while the dentist works on a back tooth is very tiring. Aren't we lucky to have such great dental care? Now don't grind your teeth when you sleep!
Boy do I feel your pain, having just gone through that. I have a big mouth (which my hubby will confirm;-)) so I never had to have any teeth pulled - still have all 4wisdom teeth. But a cracked tooth and all the drilling sucks. Glad it's over.
Feel for you girl. I hate, hate, hate going to the dentist. Lost my two front teeth when I was sixteen and a tennis ball serve hit them when I was playing. On the other hand, have no wisdom teeth. Evolution, do you think?
Thanks for the commiseration, ladies. Things are much better today; only a little residual jaw soreness. And a minor 'rough spot' at inside gum line of the temporary crown. Nothing serious enough to interfere with life. I don't think it really matters how big your mouth is; holding the jaw open with all that stuff in there for any length of time is going to lead to soreness. And the fact that someone poked a big needle in there for a while doesn't help!
I had 3 wisdom teeth. They were pointed forward instead of up, so they removed them when I was 16. I insisted on being totally out. When the dental surgeon said, 'But why? All we have to do is slit the gums..." I stopped him right there and suggested we'd both be better off if he was in control and I didn't pass out or get sick from thinking about what he was doing. That's always my problem. Overactive imagination.
Now -- which of my characters is going to have to go to the dentists?
AH HA! Now that explains the state of my wisdom teeth... silly genes.
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