It may not be a big deal to most, but I went to the dentist Tuesday. It had been some time since my last dental visit, but that’s a story for another time. Here is a rundown of why I went and how it was.
I was over at a friend’s house watching the Grammy’s. He had graciously made steaks and such and I was enjoying them thoroughly. I already had problems with my “6 year” molars on both sides on my lower jaw. Neither had given me any pain until I was munching away at the delicious steak. I believe this to be the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. It started hurting pretty bad but I, like the fool I have been up until now, took some ibuprofen and went to bed. On the way to work the next day it was hurting really bad. I called my wife and told her it was “finally time.” She did all she could but we couldn’t get an appointment until Tuesday at 3. So Monday and Tuesday I lived in pain. It was manageable half the time. The other half was debilitating. All I could do during these times was put my head in my hands and do everything I could to hold back tears (I was at work after all). It was really bad. Then the glorious time came.
I drove home and met my wife. She drove me to the dentist’s office and helped me with all the paper work and crap. If it weren’t for her, I couldn’t have done it. When the Dr. came in to see me, I had no pain. It was the only time in the past three days where that happened (including when I took some prescription pain meds). She told me all the things that I need to get fixed in my mouth but that it was the one that was hurting that needed attention today. I agreed with my whole heart. She said that there wasn’t enough of the hurting tooth to save it and that I should do something with the mirroring tooth because it was a ticking time bomb. I said “that is fine lets just get it the hell out of there.” She told me that my wisdom teeth on the bottom also needed to come out, as well as a bunch of other things I needed done. I told her we would cross that bridge when we got to it. She and her staff went about getting an appointment for me at the oral surgeon down the road. It was comforting to know that this surgeon was my dentist’s dentist. She came back in and told us that the surgeon had an opening but we needed to leave immediately. So we did. The 10 minute drive to the other office was the worst pain that I experienced in the whole debacle. It was so bad that I almost threw up (I didn’t tell my wife that).
We got to the second dentist’s office and I sat down in the waiting room with my head in my hands like a worthless piece of poo. My wife, again, took care of everything. I couldn’t have done it without her; she is the best. After what seemed like an eternity (maybe 5 minutes), they called my name. They brought me to room #6 and it wasn’t long before I was leaving again to get an x-ray. They were fast and I liked that because my pain level was still spiked really high. I sat in the chair the same time the dentist came in. He introduced himself and told me my options. ”I could just do the one that is hurting, the two that need to be done, or we could do all 6″ he said. By 6 he meant the two that needed to be done and all four of my wisdom teeth. I was told by my other dentist that my top wisdom teeth could stay and that nothing was wrong with them so this came as a surprise. My only concern about the wisdom teeth was recovery time. I couldn’t miss that much work right now and would have to schedule that later. I told him that we would just take out the two that needed it right now and we would do wisdom teeth later. To follow this up I asked with a chuckle, “What do you have in the way of sedation?” He chuckled back and told me about a method they have that will totally bring me under but I would still respond to him. He added that I wouldn’t remember a thing and added “Who wants to remember something like this?” I thought this was kinda crazy that I but, already having an aversion to the dentist, I told him to do it. After all it was what I wanted anyway. I signed the paper for the anesthetic and he went and got ready. While he was getting ready I started to get nervous. It finally settled in that I was about to receive dental surgery. He and the assistant came back in the room and started hooking me up to a bunch of stuff. One of the things was a heart monitor. My heart rate raised and lowered as new things kept appearing in the room. The dentist tied a rubber hose around my arm and all I could think of was that he was going to shoot me up with drugs until I was totally gone and harvest my organs. But that didn’t happen. He sprayed some really cold stuff on my hand and I elected not to look at what he was doing. ”Open and close your fist.” he said. Then he added “Okay, hold a fist for me.” Not wanting to screw up on the instructions he gave, I held the tightest fist that I could muster. He began to ask me questions. ”How long have you been married?” ”3 years.” I answered him trying to give the quickest answer. He asked me where I lived. I told him. Then he asked me a comfortable question, “What do you do for a living?” Being in the health care profession and being able to talk with a Dr. about medicine is fun. I feel like I’m in their club. ”I am a pharmacy technician.” I said proudly. ”Oh yeah? Where is your pharmacy?” he asked. I answered. I wanted to keep talking about it in the hopes that we would speak about drugs and stuff. But that was it. I felt no needle. I saw only blackness. I remember flashes of what was happening. It was very much like in the movies when Wolverine is having flashbacks about what happened to his bones but cannot figure out what is going on. Flashes of people in my mouth. Working on something. Then more blackness.
My wife says it was about 25 to 30 minutes from the time they started sedation to the time I was awake again. She walked in the room and looked into my face. I remained with a blank stare, eyes darting lazily too and fro. She smiled at me but I did not respond. She didn’t like that. She told me it was scary. She walked behind me to my right to talk to the assistant which is when I woke. The first thing I remember was looking at a large window with the blinds shut. I was alone, save for two voices behind me to my right. I sat there and collected myself. My mouth was completely numb but I could feel the pieces of gauze on each missing tooth. I felt no pain and this made me smile. My wife came back in front of my face and I smiled. ”There you are,” she said. I got up from the chair and walked to the car.
I slept all night t and had no pain the next day.
