Dental Dramas

It started sometime before Chinese New Year. Eating lunch one day and we bit on what we thought was a pebble. Then a few days later we started feeling our right backmost molar getting a mite sensitive when it came to certain foodstuff and cold drinks, and especially if we actually brush there. After some probing with a finger we discovered that we had a small hole on said sensitive molar.

Thankfully for us that the molar was rather inaccessible to most foodstuff, saliva and brushing there was awkward - so that while we had sensitive twinges from time to time we didn't have to rush straight off to the dentist in pain.

But still, an appointment with the dentist was a must. It's not as if a decayed tooth was going to get better by itself, and waiting for the problem to go away by itself would mean waiting for the troublesome tooth to fall out (which we think would cause us much pain in the process). So we headed back to our dentist, whom we haven't visited for...some five years or so. We're not very comfortable visiting the dentist, friendly and professional and gentle as he may be. The sound of the drills or his other devices always conjure up the worse.

So altogether now, we've already been to the dentist three times. In this past two months.

First for a filling on the decaying molar.

Then for scaling.

And just recently, the veneer of two particularly rough teeth plus the repairing of some fillings.

And each time, it's always the same. We come in relaxed, we get into the seat and relax, we discuss with the dentist (and let him scold us, yes), we open our mouth for him to do his work, and we occupy ourself by closing our eyes (partly due to having a bright light shining on our face) and trying to relax our hands from clenching.

It never stops. The brain may tell us, it's ok, he's not drilling although it may sound like it, it's just a pick that vibrates very fast to clean out the tartar, but our hands tell us we're afraid, clench clench.

And for our third visit, the good dentist starts off our appointment by telling us, "I'm going to give you a jab first yeah."

We would have much prefer if the jab was a GA that knocked us out. Still, what was interesting was that...while the two shots he gave us still had that slight sting, it wasn't the fire-hot stake in the gums that we always think it was. That was a bit of a plus point.

Then there was a whole amount of drilling, this and that we know not what because we chose to keep our eyes closed. There were times when he held a sort of lamp close to the fillings, and more drilling and chipping with something that caused a burning smell...seriously, the arsenal a dentist has scares us.

And at the end of it all, we survive intact! We got up from the chair to find that the LA not only numbed the gums, but the effect spread all the way to our nose! Now that was an interesting sensation. The nurse assured us that once the numbness fades off, there won't be any residual pain. Mind you, this bit is important! When we had our molars extracted previously in preparation for braces, we were bedridden for the rest of the day lethargic with pain, stuffed full of panadol and sucking on ice. We didn't want to be caught unprepared when the numbness wore off and suddenly poleaxed with pain while in public. If there was going to be pain, then we'll get the panadols and ice ready. But there was none.

Now if only the anaesthetic could numb off the shock of the dentist's bill for the anaesthetic, fillings and veneer!