Decay without Delay

The tooth pain increased to new levels last night, exceeding the Morrissey measurement set a few years back. I managed to get some interupted sleep until about 3am and then gave up and went downstairs for some sort of distraction. Ironically the little ones were sleeping very, very well so it was me that was stopping Wife from getting proper rest.

Luckily Granny recorded a film for me the other day so I lay on the sofa put on the headphones and watched that whilst suffering in silence. Never before have I been so happy for a film to be three hours long and it did work as a distration from my suffering. Even so the new measure of pain is called Watchmen level.

The plan for the day was, once everyone was up to head to the inlaws dentist for when it opened in the hope someone could look into my pains. We got there as the doors opened but sadness hit as the receptionist informed us that there were no spare appointments at all. I almost started to cry as I stated how I simply could not take the pain anymore. She started to mention the drop in centre down the road. As she did she looked at me and said "oooh it does look quite swollen doesn't it". She then asked us to wait while she popped upstairs to chat to the dentists. When she returned she asked me to fill out a quick form as they were going to make room for me.

Five minutes or so later I was reclined with the light in my eyes and being x-rayed. Over the years I have had a few issues with this tooth and its opposite counterpart. Much of these problems were due to some quite poor dentistry for a number of years. I changed dentist a few years ago and had some extensive work done. Part of this work involved the removal of the opposite counterpart and the part destruction and rebuild of this one. I was expecting some pain relief and so minor patching up in order to get me back down south where I would demand the removal of this evil tooth. So I was amazed when the xray came back and the dentist said we have two options. Option 1 - pull it out, and option 2 - dig down, drain, refill and rebuild. I said I would very much like to go for option one. He said "OK". I replied "Now?" and he responded "Well thats the plan".

If my face had not been so tender I would have kissed him there and then. I did warn him that on my other tooth removal it took a while and required some jaw cutting, but he was confident he could pull out the evil tooth. The next minute we were off. All the different pliers came out, along with a bit of drilling to form two pullable parts after the top ceramic part crumbled. The first part (front root, I think, though I could not see from my position) came out after a little bit of crunch and play but the (presumed) back root had far more evil intent and refused to play ball. And so it was that the surgical kit was out and the jaw was being cut again. Well at least I should be more symmetrical now.

With that, all in all about an hour after I almost cried to the receptionist, I was all stitched back up and one tooth lighter. The dental nurse was lightly concerned when I requested I take the bits of bloody teeth root home to take a picture of, but then it was a strange request (I cleaned them before taking the picture). On leaving the dentist I was described by Granny as looking elated, and she was right. I profusely thanked the dentist and all the other staff there and apologised to the old lady in the waiting room who was dying to get home to have some toast.

The elation lasted as long as the anesthetic, at which point my face decided to hurt again and my body decided to melt down a bit. This tends to happen whenever I get ill but is still quite horrible. Basically my body temperature plummets and I become a quivering wreck. I have learnt that a bundle of layers gets me through it usually but being this time of year I went for Three duvets, Two hot water bottles, and a Hoodie over my PJs. Eventually I got warm and slept through the rest. When I woke the pain had subsided and I felt human again. Even enough to take this very quick picture.

So now I have a new hero in the shape of a Yorkshire dentist. I also have lower teeth like Rob Brydon, though mine are more white than non-white, hopefully.