dental mental

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The American poet Ogden Nash said
“Some tortures are physical and some are mental;
But the one that’s both is dental” .
Too true!!
In my case it was more mental than physical, when I had a ‘root canal surgery’ done on one of my teeth.. Actually it was a financial torture! Dental care in Bangalore is insanely expensive.
This ordeal which lasted for over 4 weeks (weekends, actually) taught me a few things.
Lesson 1: NEVER ever ignore a cavity!
Just coz I ignored it, I had to spend five Saturdays in the dentist’s office, sitting in a stupid position, with my mouth hanging open, shell out a month’s salary on a stupid tooth( the health insurance plan duzn’t cover it!!! Not fair!!) and spend some sleepless nights getting terrorized!
Week 1:
My first visit, the doc, a pleasant old man got an x-ray done n said in a morose voice.. “sorry dear, u need a root canal. Come back next week” .
I kept worrying, tried not to worry, talked abt it, cursed myself for not getting it treated earlier.. n somehow the week passed.
Week 2:
Back at the dentist’s, same time, same place. This time it was a nice lady, a root canal specialist.
Doc: “ hi manasa.. what I’ll do is drill a hole in ur tooth, pull out the tissue, cut the nerve off, fix a screw…..”
Me: “ please doc, I don’t really need to know abt it.. just get on with it”
Then she takes a really long injection. Now injections really really freak me out! Cant stand looking at them! I refused to open my mouth until she started losing patience n said †if I do the procedure without this anaesthesia, u’ll die of pain!
Lesson 2: NEVER open ur eyes while getting a dental treatment! They use pretty sharp instruments and it duznt feel nice seeing those going into ur mouth. I wished I cud close my ears off too when I was hearing things like “give a me a sharper, longer one“or
“clean all that blood“or the very annoying noise of those instruments..

Week 3:
All the way to the clinic, I was praying “please no injection today” but the first thing I saw as I took my ‘now familiar’ place was the long, horrible thing in her hand. This time thr was less drama, less panic, less hysteria.. I behaved quite well actually, though it was painful. I even got a free toothbrush..lol!


Week 4:
Again “please god, no injection” .. but..
“open ur mouth dear.. a small injection ..it was that old doc. This time it pained even less. N I didn’t freak out at all. Dat stupid long needle looked familiar. This was the most uncomfortable visit. Horrible tasting things were stuck in my mouth, it was held open 4 soo long dat I thought my jaw would break! Something very similar 2 road construction thing was done..drilling, fixing screws..
At last, “all done dear” . Root canal successful.!! Just a cap needed to b placed A very proud moment in my life. I survived it! :D
Week 5 :
Took my place very comfortably, opened my mouth for an injection. But surprise surprise, thr was no need. Just got my brand new tooth cap placed.! I was out on 15 mins!!
The best visit ever!
At the end of it all, I’d become immune to pain, injections and dentists, started hating ice cream ( my food for 5 Saturdays was only ice cream) and am very thankful to the guy who invented anaesthesia!
PS: Thr's a controversial story abt its invention which u can check out at
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/158/12/2103