Just a little something to dull the pain

I tried to be brave. I really, really tried. But I failed at the last hurdle. I'm not talking about the Olympic curling try-outs... I had to go to the dentist yesterday! And because my appointment was at 11:00, I didn't want any novocaine, not because I was trying to be brave or macho, but because I wanted to be able to eat my lunch without drooling my pop down the front of my shirt. (I can't bear to spill a single drop of that nectar of the gods.) I asked the dentist if the stainless steel pain-bringer she called a "drill" would come close to any nerves and she said that she didn't think so. So, I steeled myself to go sans anasthetic. And I probably would have chickened out as soon as I heard that banshee-like scream when she turned on the drill had I not been focusing on a soft taco. And I made it almost to the end, too, when she finally hit a nerve that made me jump enough for her to say that she'd just give me a little something to deaden the area. Dang! After the shot, she only had to drill a little bit more before she was done. At least she didn't give me so much that my lips felt as big as Angelina Jolie's--it wore off within a half hour, so I guess it all worked out, because I was still able to have lunch at Taco Bell AND drink my pop through a straw! Ah, life's little pleasures.

Unfortunately, though, the luck didn't hold. I had failed to put my tongue into the filling right after getting it. I saved that pleasure until I got back to my office, when I noticed that the filling didn't completely fill the gap in my tooth--some of the filling had already fallen out!!! I called the dentist and they had me come back in. Since I was a walk-in at that point, I had to sit in the waiting room for about 30 minutes before I was seen by the dentist. When I finally got in, I told her what had happened, and so she looked and said, "No, this is right--I sculpted the filling to have a natural indent like its counterpart on the other side of your mouth." Argg. (Although props to the dentist for sculpting my tooth. You don't find people taking that kind of pride in their work very often nowadays, and then it's primarily Congressmen, doctors, postal workers, prostitutes, bike messengers, IRS auditors.) Anyway, what a waste of an afternoon!

That reminds me of when I got my wisdom teeth out. My oral surgeon had a philosphy that he never wanted his patients to experience pain from his procedures. When I went in, he put me under a general anasthetic, then performed the procedure (and possibly more, since my shirt was untucked and buttoned up one button off when I woke up and I wondered if I'd been molested while I was asleep--but that's for another post) anyway, before they woke me up, the surgeon shot me full of novocaine. They then woke me and had me take some vicodin as soon as I was coherent. I practically floated home. I had enough vicodins to last me almost a week--enough that I was almost completely healed by the time I had to check into the Betty Ford Clinic.