ODDREE.COM

Rough And Toothless

I called up the dentist Tuesday afternoon to make an appointment for my 'extraction'. I got a tooth that fell apart on me chewing up some pizza one day. The estimate to repair the tooth was close to $3,000. I decided pulling the tooth was a better idea. So I called the dentist to make the appointment, and they were ready to do it the following morning at 8:00AM. That was fine by me since I wasn't teaching class on Wednesday.

I arrived around 7:30AM sharp at the dentist office. But nobody was there. I found out that dentist herself, and all the assistants don't show up themselves until about 8:00AM. So I waited in the 'waiting room'. The waiting room is odd, because it's shared with the whole small building. So this waiting room is about 100 feet away down a hall from the actual dental office. It was cold too. I don't think they started heating the building until I showed up.

At 8:00AM they brought me in, sat me down, and began with the novicaine. Three full shots were delivered in all. One on each side of the tooth, and a third across the top of my mouth. They pre-numbed the areas with 'topical' stuff. So the first two needles didn't hurt much. The third needle had to break through my pallette in the top of my mouth which she warned 'was a stinger'. Damn that hurt. They work that needle in slow too. But after that shot, my whole head was numb.

They gave me about 5 minutes to really get numbed up, and then they went to work with the pliers. It didn't hurt at all getting pulled. I just felt a lot of pulling and twisting. Then a pop. I couldn't believe how long the tooth was. It was amazing. It was also really gross looking. I wanted to grab it and stomp on it for hurting me so many nights.

They had me bite down on some gauze for a half an hour, and I later had to change out the gauze another 3 or four times before the bleeding stopped. And that was it. Not too bad an operation really. And I took Tylenol all day, so I felt no pain at all.

I am so happy not to have that tooth today. I slept so good last night. No aching at all.

But now ... I am back in the forest again. Getting ready to teach the second half of Microsoft Word Level III. OH BOY. I LOVE WORD LEVEL III. And it get's better. Tomorrow I get to teach Word Level II to ONE person back at the office. God I love my job.

Oh well. Before I know it, it will be lunch time.