I Hate Dentists

In less than two hours, I will be in a surgical facility. I’m not looking forward to it.

A couple of weeks ago, I broke a tooth. At the time, it was a mild discomfort. I favored it while eating, trying to avoid it. Over time, it gradually got worse. A few days ago, I went to my dentist, who took an X-ray. He said he could see the fracture, but wanted to send me to another dentist for a second opinion. That took three extra days. The day before I was to see this other dentist (yesterday morning), I called his office. I told them that I realized that I wasn’t going to see the dentist until Friday, but I needed something for pain. I explained that it was constantly hurting and that that morning, I tasted something awful in my mouth. On closer inspection, the tooth was oozing blood.

When I told her that, she told me that had to see me that day. Within two hours, I was in their office. The doctor came in, looked at me, and said, “I can see you are in pain.” My response, “I’ll pay you $100 right now for two Percocets.” He laughed and said, “Well, let’s see what’s going on.” I said, “I’m totally serious.”

He took an X-ray and as he was looking at the X-ray, I could hear him say to himself, “Oh Man!”. Then, he took my pain seriously. He turned and said to me, “Let’s get the pain controlled and then we’ll talk.” He asked an office assistant for a “topical” to help with the pain and also a “syringe”. Then he said, “You know what, forget the topical. This tissue to too red hot to touch with a topical. Just bring the syringe.” He got ready and told me to grab tight to the chair and told me that it would be painful because he was going into tissue that was highly inflamed. I did as he said. And he was right. It hurt like hell. He said, “I’m going as slow as I can and being as gentle as I can.” I said as well as I could, “Just do the fucking thing!”

He finished, and the pain started leaving after two minutes. After five minutes, I felt so much better. He then told me that the tooth was heavily fractured and could not be saved. He referred me to an oral surgeon and made the appointment for me today at 11:15. Unfortunately, this involves a highly visible tooth - one of my front teeth. So, he’s sending me to an oral surgeon that has a lab right there. The hope is that they can do the extraction and fit me with something temporary while they make something permanent. It will be an implant that will go right into the jaw. Before that can happen, the tooth will be extracted and the infection will have to be dealt with.

I have no idea what shape I will be in after this is done, but it’s fair to say that I will be on some heavy drug (narcotics) after this is over. It doesn’t matter to me if it shuts my brain down. I’ll just sleep. I’ll deal with the crappy feeling later of drug withdrawal. I have a disciplined mind. It will be no problem for me.

I hate dentists.