My Sweet Dental Xperience
08.15.2008
5:55 p.m.
By this time, the anxiety of being on my own is beginning to get to the very marrow of my bones. The emptiness of the house, save for me in front of the computer, my grandmother in her room and Gina languishing in the old armchair by the porch is like death by asphyxiation. Add to that, the depressingly melancholic music playing from the radio that I have tuned into at random. Wow! I know and admit that I truly am antisocial, a total loner at certain instances, but this? Gosh, this is so over the edge that I just have to rant about this one right about now.
Okay, my gums are stitched and swollen, I could hardly open my mouth and yawning, laughing and talking cause me sudden pain around the jaw line that this hindrance, however necessary, is actually pissing me off. Let me tell you, the extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth is the worst procedure that could ever befall any living individual, I would not wish it even to my worst enemy. It’s like travelling, barefoot, back and forth across a valley of coals, razors and sharp, crushed glass. And that is still an understatement.
The procedure begins, if I remember it correctly, with topical anesthesia being applied around the gum area where the dentist will inject the actual anesthesia. Fact is when my doctor did the injection, I actually felt the long, thin needle going into my gums and I had to close my eyes so I wouldn’t see the stainless steel being taken out of my mouth, lest I faint over the offensive pain that it caused me. But that is still what we Filipinos call “kagat ng langgam” compared to what I felt afterwards.
After a few seconds of opening and closing my mouth, as per the dentist’s instructions, this act, she said, quickens the effect of the anesthesia, the lower right side of my face began to feel numb and satisfied that I will no longer, for a given amount of time, feel anything, she took out this stainless screwdriver/ice pick like instrument and said: “Okay, you will not feel anything.” Trusting her, I fought the nauseous impulse to vomit first then faint, I opened my mouth and said my prayers. Alright, that’s overkill, but imagine something like that being used to take a tooth out of you.
And then, the procedure began. You know the promise of “not feeling any pain”? Perhaps under normal circumstances, it is true, but in my case, since the force necessary in pulling the impacted tooth out should be more than the usual, it causes trauma around the gum area, giving me some feeling of pain. And this pain, is not mere, it is like an annoying headache that will not go away unless you take in a pill. That is not all, imagine that pain and the sound of struggle between your tooth and the dental instrument rumbling in your ear, the tenth cotton ball drenched in your blood you see being taken out of your mouth and the “tsk-tsk” of the dentist as she wipes her brow of the sweat that has formed because of the tedium of pulling the stubborn molar out. That, my friends, is what I had to go through.
Gosh! And the fact that for the past twenty-four hours, I have not been able to yawn when the impulse to yawn hits me is one of the most frustrating things ever. You would think that I am just making a big thing out of nothing, but try suppressing that, and you’d see what I mean.
Well, at least I got that out. Now let’s see what I can write about next time? Perhaps this freakin’ headache and the annoying band singing “Butterfly…butterfly…” repeatedly? Aw, whatever! Karen—out!
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