I’m having oral surgery in about an hour. I have an unnatural fear of dentists to begin with, due to my childhood dentist being my great-uncle who though that I didn’t need to bother with Novocaine for the little cavities. I assume we kept going to him because he was family.
So my periodontist decided to prescribe me some pills to relax me. I think that was probably a good idea, as I’m pretty sure my pulse rate is about double the norm.
I have a bad feeling I’m going to be leaving the periodontist’s office with an uneven number of teeth. And now that I thought of that, it’s going to bother me forever. Damn it.
Well. I made matzo ball soup yesterday in expectation of needing something soft and filling after the surgery.
I have no frame of reference for this. I have never had a scalpel taken to me in my life. I don’t have a single stitch in my body. I’ve had root canals, but those stop hurting a few hours after you get them done, usually. One hurt until the next day, but that’s because I had an extra root in the molar.
Oh, well. In a couple of hours, I’ll find out what it’s like to have all of the above, although I really hope I’m not going to find out what it’s like to have a tooth pulled.
The OCD part of me is going to actually count my teeth sometime in the next day or two, I’m sure.
Update: Woo-hoo! They’re all still there!
Off to bed now.
When I was a kid, I always figured that people became dentists because they’re sadists.
You saw Little Shop of Horrors too many times.
Did you know that dentists have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession?
My dentist in NJ quit dentistry and went into creating wrought iron fences. Lucrative field, and he was happy.
I put off having my wisdom teeth extracted until I was 50 because I wasn’t looking forward to what I figured would be an uncomfortable procedure at best. But then one of ’em cracked, and I had to have it yanked… so I went and had all four done at once.
It was a non-event, as far as I was concerned. The combination of Novocain, nitrous oxide, and Versed they doped me up with meant that I was unaware of all the tugging and Gawd knows what else. And I had no postoperative discomfort to speak of. Weird.
Hope by now you’re pretty much back to normal!
Yeah, pretty much. I can’t drink Coke until tomorrow, which is bothering more than just about anything. But I only used ibuprofen yesterday, not the painkillers they gave me, and that’s all I’ll be needing today, if anything.
On the other hand, the left side of my jaw is square. The swelling is rather interesting. I’m just happy they can save the tooth. Root canals are no big deal.