Tooth Removal
Yesterday I had a tooth removed. Tooth #1, they called it in their dentist-speak; the one way in the back, on the top, on the right side of my body (from my perspective). It had been hurting me for some time, until I stopped brushing my teeth, which, for reasons that are outside of what the dentists have been taught and therefore are simply delusion on my part, made the hurting stop.
But yesterday morning the pain came back, and with a vengence. After my chemistry midterm I went to the walk-in clinic, just to see when they would be open tomarrow morning, when all of a sudden I was swept into a whirlwind of forms, short lines, and hesitant, yet rapid-fire questions from nervous student dentists. They applied freezing cold q-tips to my teeth, to see how much pain I'm in. "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it hurt?" "It's....a 1..no! a 7!... or...a 5...I don't know...." They exchange frustrated glances, they proceed to shove large plastic objects as far back into my throat as possible, and tell me to bite down, cutting the sharp plastic sides of the x-ray sheet into my tender mouth flesh.
I knew this would happen. It happens every time I go to the dentist. So I warned them before we even began: I have a very sensitive gag reflex. Please be gentle and careful. They don't believe me (they never do), and take no gentle care whatsoever at least not until the gagging gets so bad they I actually end up puking into my hand after ripping the large yellow contraption out of my mouth and onto the floor. They spray a numbing agent into my throat, and, before it has any time to take effect, continue their torture. Compounded by the grotestque, cherry flavor from the spray, the gagging sensation becomes worse, but I manage to only spit up a little bit, and keep it in my mouth until they are done, spitting it out into the sink directly afterwards. But when they are finished, and they go off for about 8 mintues to develop the film and discuss their plan of action, I am amazed to find that I can reach my finger all the way to the back of my throat, touching the little dangly thing in the back, without any gagging at all. I play with this, like a kid with a new toy, until they return, informing me that one tooth, tooth #1, needs to come out, and that I should really come back and blah blah blah, conform to their values, do what they say.
Surprisingly, compared to the preliminary examination the actual extraction was very relaxing, actually pleasurable. They were very generous with anesthetics, sufficiently numbing my mouth with a tingly gel before even inserting the needles in. I didn't feel the needles, but I felt my nerves in my mouth being affected, radiating out in waves from the needle insertion, a sensation...of I don't know what. Resignation? As they began to take out the tooth, which again I barely felt, I had to suppress laughter: The man was working so hard, gyrating the pliers in broad circles, moving my head back and forth. It struck me funny somehow. The woman made a running commentary the whole time: "Okay, it's coming out, we're getting movement, you're doing a great job. You too, Xian (the name of the dentist with the pliers). Keep going, almost there. Heh. I feel like I'm announcing a golf game or something." Which almost made me laugh again.
She continued her commentary, and after while I started to feel like I was giving birth. "Here it comes" she said, here eyes glowing, a look of wonder on her face, "it's almost out, we can see the roots. Ok! It's out!" They lifted the tooth out with great pride and showed it to me, and in the back of mind, I thought "My baby, it's out" and laughed a little again.
But losing a tooth is symbolic: old, useless, decayed growth is removed. In dream dictionaries they list it as meaning significant, beneficial change. And I felt like that: it's time to get rid of something old, no longer needed, even harmful. Fitting for my efforts now with sobriety, which seem to be making more progress than before.
I don't know how I feel now though. I'm happy the tooth is gone. Although the healing is still painful, my whole mouth feels much better, and my ear does as well (I believe that the tooth infection was getting into my ear canal somehow, or just irritating it maybe). We'll see if symbolically it works out, but on the physical level I feel very content.
Now I just need to work on all my other teeth. Sigh...more annoying dentists.
But yesterday morning the pain came back, and with a vengence. After my chemistry midterm I went to the walk-in clinic, just to see when they would be open tomarrow morning, when all of a sudden I was swept into a whirlwind of forms, short lines, and hesitant, yet rapid-fire questions from nervous student dentists. They applied freezing cold q-tips to my teeth, to see how much pain I'm in. "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it hurt?" "It's....a 1..no! a 7!... or...a 5...I don't know...." They exchange frustrated glances, they proceed to shove large plastic objects as far back into my throat as possible, and tell me to bite down, cutting the sharp plastic sides of the x-ray sheet into my tender mouth flesh.
I knew this would happen. It happens every time I go to the dentist. So I warned them before we even began: I have a very sensitive gag reflex. Please be gentle and careful. They don't believe me (they never do), and take no gentle care whatsoever at least not until the gagging gets so bad they I actually end up puking into my hand after ripping the large yellow contraption out of my mouth and onto the floor. They spray a numbing agent into my throat, and, before it has any time to take effect, continue their torture. Compounded by the grotestque, cherry flavor from the spray, the gagging sensation becomes worse, but I manage to only spit up a little bit, and keep it in my mouth until they are done, spitting it out into the sink directly afterwards. But when they are finished, and they go off for about 8 mintues to develop the film and discuss their plan of action, I am amazed to find that I can reach my finger all the way to the back of my throat, touching the little dangly thing in the back, without any gagging at all. I play with this, like a kid with a new toy, until they return, informing me that one tooth, tooth #1, needs to come out, and that I should really come back and blah blah blah, conform to their values, do what they say.
Surprisingly, compared to the preliminary examination the actual extraction was very relaxing, actually pleasurable. They were very generous with anesthetics, sufficiently numbing my mouth with a tingly gel before even inserting the needles in. I didn't feel the needles, but I felt my nerves in my mouth being affected, radiating out in waves from the needle insertion, a sensation...of I don't know what. Resignation? As they began to take out the tooth, which again I barely felt, I had to suppress laughter: The man was working so hard, gyrating the pliers in broad circles, moving my head back and forth. It struck me funny somehow. The woman made a running commentary the whole time: "Okay, it's coming out, we're getting movement, you're doing a great job. You too, Xian (the name of the dentist with the pliers). Keep going, almost there. Heh. I feel like I'm announcing a golf game or something." Which almost made me laugh again.
She continued her commentary, and after while I started to feel like I was giving birth. "Here it comes" she said, here eyes glowing, a look of wonder on her face, "it's almost out, we can see the roots. Ok! It's out!" They lifted the tooth out with great pride and showed it to me, and in the back of mind, I thought "My baby, it's out" and laughed a little again.
But losing a tooth is symbolic: old, useless, decayed growth is removed. In dream dictionaries they list it as meaning significant, beneficial change. And I felt like that: it's time to get rid of something old, no longer needed, even harmful. Fitting for my efforts now with sobriety, which seem to be making more progress than before.
I don't know how I feel now though. I'm happy the tooth is gone. Although the healing is still painful, my whole mouth feels much better, and my ear does as well (I believe that the tooth infection was getting into my ear canal somehow, or just irritating it maybe). We'll see if symbolically it works out, but on the physical level I feel very content.
Now I just need to work on all my other teeth. Sigh...more annoying dentists.
posted by nearfalse | 4:32 AM
1 Comments:
Yikes! That sounds rough. Was it a wisdom tooth? I haven't been to the dentist in forever and I'm not really looking forward to it.
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