ow
i got up bright and early this morning b/c i had a dentist appointment to fix the temporary filling from a root canal that broke while i was eating Nerds. i was afraid that they would have to 're-do' the root canal but they just had to remove the rest of the broken part and fill it with a permanent filling. my root canal was done by Dr. Senters (a woman) but this one was done by a man who didn't introduce himself. he had a very friendly nature and was sweet enough for a man who was about to cause me horrible pain. he was singing along badly to the classic rock station playing on the radio. he complimented my teeth and cut up with me about 'just relax...it will only hurt a lot". if i had just run into him on teh street, i would've thought he was an art teacher--just kind of cool and old-hippie-like.
so the assistnat, Heather, got there first and poked the leftover filling with a metal poker. (who's big bright idea was it to stick a sharp metal hooked poker into someone's already painful tooth to see if it's painful?) of course it hurt, so i wiggled away from her--typical of me if i'm ever in pain. you'd think this would stick with her. Doc came in, numbed me once in the back of my mouth and once by the gumline, and drilled out the old filling and told heather to put in something called a matrix (no little red pill, however) and then to fill the tooth. well, heather had already proven herself to me to be a klutz--hitting the instrument tray with her hip, losing directional control of the x-ray machine, tripping over the chair casters--so i'm not real confident of her sticking her fingers and God knows what else in my mouth. well, turns out, i was right....as she was putting on the matrix, part of the rest of my tooth chipped off below the gumline.
Doc comes back in and does the filling himself. i had a rubber dam across my mouth to keep the bits of filling or tooth from flying down my throat. while doc was doing whatever he was doing i was in extreme pain and the cold water he was spraying in to clear things out was hurting me. of course, i wiggled as little as i could help. he told me to quit wiggling since this was already a difficult thing to do. i told him that it was hurting. And this is the part that flew all over me: he said "your tooth isn't hurting. i numbed it and your tooth doesn't have any nerve anyway. please stop wiggling."
um, hello? how the hell would you know whether my tooth hurts? so i tried to keep still since i had no other choice but to let him complete it. i cried. not as much as i wanted to, but it was awful. He got done and was filling out all the forms and asked how i was doing. i turned to him and told him that it fuckin hurts and that i felt the whole thing. He looked as though this was the first time i had ever mentioned it. He apologized and repeated that he numbed me. i told him it didn't work.
he had the receptionist ask me when i wanted to make an appointment to get my teeth cleaned. p-shaw!
so the assistnat, Heather, got there first and poked the leftover filling with a metal poker. (who's big bright idea was it to stick a sharp metal hooked poker into someone's already painful tooth to see if it's painful?) of course it hurt, so i wiggled away from her--typical of me if i'm ever in pain. you'd think this would stick with her. Doc came in, numbed me once in the back of my mouth and once by the gumline, and drilled out the old filling and told heather to put in something called a matrix (no little red pill, however) and then to fill the tooth. well, heather had already proven herself to me to be a klutz--hitting the instrument tray with her hip, losing directional control of the x-ray machine, tripping over the chair casters--so i'm not real confident of her sticking her fingers and God knows what else in my mouth. well, turns out, i was right....as she was putting on the matrix, part of the rest of my tooth chipped off below the gumline.
Doc comes back in and does the filling himself. i had a rubber dam across my mouth to keep the bits of filling or tooth from flying down my throat. while doc was doing whatever he was doing i was in extreme pain and the cold water he was spraying in to clear things out was hurting me. of course, i wiggled as little as i could help. he told me to quit wiggling since this was already a difficult thing to do. i told him that it was hurting. And this is the part that flew all over me: he said "your tooth isn't hurting. i numbed it and your tooth doesn't have any nerve anyway. please stop wiggling."
um, hello? how the hell would you know whether my tooth hurts? so i tried to keep still since i had no other choice but to let him complete it. i cried. not as much as i wanted to, but it was awful. He got done and was filling out all the forms and asked how i was doing. i turned to him and told him that it fuckin hurts and that i felt the whole thing. He looked as though this was the first time i had ever mentioned it. He apologized and repeated that he numbed me. i told him it didn't work.
he had the receptionist ask me when i wanted to make an appointment to get my teeth cleaned. p-shaw!