Saturday, September 03, 2005

Tooth Decay


My wisdom tooth slowly growing in (right side) squishing my other teeth into one another. Obviously this picture was taken by my dentist and not by me.

!!!! WARNING !!!!
this blog entry might be a tad graphic
some readers may want to skip this

It's been months since my tooth has been causing pain. In the last two days or so the pain has been amplified to that of tearing one's thumbnail off. I know, I tried doing this when I smashed my thumb into a computer case a few weeks ago. The accident caused my thumbnail to be split in two with one side hanging onto some flesh. I figured pulling it off would be less painful in the long run than having the nail flapping in the wind over the course of a few days and eventually falling out on it's own.

Of course ripping one's thumbnail out is not as easy as it's cracked up to be. In the end, after a few minutes of tugging, and maybe ripping off a few millimeters, I gave up and wrapped it up using a few bandages. The point I'm trying to make is that my tooth has been way more troublesome on the pain scale than the thumbnail. Like someone was tapping a nail into your jaw slowly. Maybe it's because I can't reach the problem (as with the thumb) or maybe it's because it usually occurs while I'm trying to eat or drink something... activities I tend to enjoy under normal circumstances.

Last night, I was thirsty, I decided to drink the only drink I had in the fridge at the time. That being lemonade. I'd take a swig then my tooth would burst into pain. It would be like watching Kirk and Spock being worked over with the pain givers. Since I didn't want to waste any lemonade I continued drinking the stuff. Thirst quench, pain, thirst quench, pain... it was a continuous cycle as I kept drinking glass after glass of the stuff. I figured at some point the nerve receptors would get used to it and I could evenetually drink the liquid without noticing the bombardment of the waves of pain. Well that theory really didn't work (I realized this after about five cups).

Later on in the day after going out for the weekly dim sum spread I got some food lodged into the back of my mouth. The pain was not as bad as the lemonade experiment but it caused me to have a headache on the right side of my head. While the others went shopping I ventured off to see the family dentist.

Once at the office I made an appointment. The earliest I could be seen was this coming thursday at 3:30pm. At that point I went home to sleep off the pain which was getting worse to the point I almost blacked out on the streetcar going home.

At this point I'd like to just yank out the tooth or plug it up (if it's a cavity) and be done with it.

Stupid tooth.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Remember "somethimes the only way out is through"... Maybe the Dentist will give you laughing gas?

Go to a pharmacy. They have stuff for numbing tooth pain. I've never tried it, but friends assure me it works, you just dab it on the site as needed. Maybe it's the same stuff they give teething babies? Also try eating and drinking food and beverages at room temperature. If the tooth is in really bad shape, you can crack the enamal worse with hot or cold, giving the Dentist more fun. And everyone, don't forget to brush your pearly whites, or they will exact a hidiously painful and lingering revenge...

Anonymous said...

In all the years I've known you, I never knew you were into masochism... interesting, I thought people who pulled finger nails were interrogators and torturers. What direction are you taking this blog?