Teeth Pain

It's 1 o'clock in the morning and I'm up.  My teeth hurt.  Right after the movies today I went to the dentist.  And believe me, me going to the dentist is a big deal.  This is my second trip to the dentist in six years.  There's nothing magickal or mystical about having a 4 inch needle stuck in your gums.  And teeth pain is different.  The regular old tylenol or advil doesn't begin to touch it. I'm thankful I've held onto vicodin that was prescribed for me for another condition.  I mean doesn't everybody hold onto their pain meds, hoarding them like precious commodities because you never know when you'll need them?  I do, and it's for times like these that I am grateful that I do. 

This pain is from having my teeth cleaned.  Can you believe that?  My gums are so sensitive and I have such a high level of dental PTSD that the only way they could clean my teeth, was to numb my half my mouth, and clean half my teeth at a time.  Again, women here play a powerful role.  My husband, bless his wonderful heart, is a regular dentist goer.  The only way he was able to convince me to go, was by telling me the new dentist is a woman.  And sure enough, that was the ticket to get me to go back.  See I was traumatized by a man dentist.  Several years ago I went in for a routine wisdom teeth removal, only to painfully learn the dentist was in way in over his head.  I kept coming up out of the anesthesia, seeing the dentist sweating, trying to ratchet my teeth out of my head.  His ineptitude resulted in my receiving a horrid sinus infection, which resulted in me having out patient surgery to remove the infection!  No wonder I have dental PTSD. But sure enough Dr. Manske and her wonderful staff, again, all women, let me cry and tell them why it had been so long since I'd been to the dentist.  And to keep me coming back, and help me with the pain - six years without a cleaning is a long time, they numb the entire half of my mouth, so they can chip away at the build up.  Makes my skin crawl just writing about it.

Now thankfully I was raised with good oral hygiene.  My Mom instilled in me good dental practices.  I can't sleep unless I brush my teeth before I go bed.  That practice has saved me, because according to my exam I don't need much work, no root canals - thank god! - just some filling upkeep on a couple of crowns. So does this mean I'm going to follow through with my dental plan?  Yeah, I'll keep going even though it gives me the heebie jeebies and sets me off kilter for hours afterward.  Why, well for one I'm beginning to trust in Dr. Manske and her great team.  Two, I don't want to lose my teeth.  Mom was telling me a while awhile ago about how important it is to have your teeth as one gets older.  Definitely want to keep my teeth, so I'll keep going.

Thanks for listening.  The pain is subsiding and I can go back to bed to now.

End Trans 1/5/10