How *I* think it looks…

This weekend I noticed I was getting a little tooth-achy in the wisdom tooth area, but I had inhaled a bunch of popcorn during the latter part of the week, and figured I had a hull wedged between my teeth. No biggie, right?

1. Spiders
2. Dentists
3. Heights

Those are my top three irrational fears, pretty much in order.

That said, I flossed and flossed, and hoped for the best. By Sunday morning I was rinsing with peroxide and salt water, because I felt no better.  All I could think was that I remembered this from an abscessed, impacted wisdom tooth back in 1987. This was the single situation that pretty much hosed my future oral care for years and years (and years n’ years). After a course of antibiotics, I went in for that infamous 1987 extraction.

“It’ll take ten minutes, tops,” they said.

“You’ll be on your way home before you know it,” they told me.

Dirty liars.

As a result, I didn’t go back to the dentist.

Until 2012, that is. I posted about the great root canal adventure and the reason I am irrationally frightened of all things dental. I got through that with halcyon and nitrous oxide. Went back for a follow-up and they told me I needed to have a deep cleaning in the future (i.e. NEAR future), but my insurance had tapped out for the year, and it was only February, so I put it on my list of things to schedule the following year. I also made a mental note that I might think about finding another office to visit, simply because it seemed a friend of a former friend of mine worked there, and it basically takes an act of God just to GET me to the dentist, I don’t need a “frenemy” beside my dental chair, ya know?

Ok, so you know me…I MEAN to do things, but sometimes, time gets away from me and I never did call around and find a new dentist to get that deep cleaning scheduled, but I pretty much knew I wasn’t going to be avoiding the dentist again this morning. 😦

I had a baaaaad night’s sleep. I kept waking up after dreaming of people and items (shoes, rocks, 2×4’s) hitting me in the jaw. When I got up this

How *they* want you think it looks…

morning I could barely open my mouth, and my lower jaw hurt, as well. And chewing? Awww, hell, no! My Admin Assistant reminded me how dangerous it is to leave an abscess unattended, you know, assuming it was abscessed, of course. I told her I was kind of leery of going back to the last dentist, and she slipped me the number of her guy.

I sucked it up, called, and got an appointment for later this morning. I got there right on time. As I was filling out the paperwork, I realized something; I lied at the end of the referenced blog, above. I AM still afraid of the dentist. By the time I got into the exam room, I was shaking like a leaf, and the dental assistant was going through my paperwork and saw where I circled 10+ on the scale of dental anxiety, 1 being the lowest.

Turns out I have infected gums, the wisdom tooth needs to come out, as does a molar on the other side where the filling has pretty much been destroyed. (Yeah, that was one of those deals that could easily make Mom look at me sideways and say, “I told you so!”) I broke it on a popcorn kernel. Honestly, when I was a kid she always warned me about that, but in the several years since that happened, said tooth hadn’t given me a bit of trouble. Oh…I also still need that deep cleaning. *sigh*

Except… this particular office doesn’t do sedatives. Now, I can be all Betty Badass on some Halcyon and laughing gas, but without it? I kept thinking back to that awful extraction 25 years back…I honestly don’t think I can do it with just a little Novocaine. No, actually, I’m quite certain that isn’t happening. Oh…and that deep cleaning? Both the dentist and the assistant assured me I was going to need some sedation. They prescribed me an antibiotic to kill the infection (extra yogurt is on the shopping list). I commend them for their honesty. They were really cool about referring me to another dentist that does IV sedative dentistry. IV? Apparently they knock you out just enough to allow you to communicate with them, but you don’t really have much, if any, memory of the situation. I’m down with that.

Hmmm…I am betting that is what that kid, Jack, had done prior to this hysterical video:

I just saw this for the first time Saturday night, and thought about him again today, all things considered. I even told the hubs that maybe I, too, could be a YouTube overnight sensation afterward. He shot me one of those looks. I guess you shouldn’t be looking TOO hard for it out there, huh?

So, come Monday morning, I will be visiting another new dental office to schedule two extractions and a deep cleaning. On the bright side, since I’m up ten pounds, this might be a really good time for me to start seriously thinking about that cut a week or two early. 😉

I keep thinking back to that fateful visit in ’87 and it still makes my stomach do terrible things. I imagine I will just pull my usual Scarlet O’Hara and think about it another time. Fiddle-dee-dee!

Until next time…

How it *REALLY* looks. This image should not have happened.