Just got back from the dentist.

When I was a kid, we had Doctor Courtice. He was the local dentist and he did it all, from extraction to fillings to braces. His hands were huge, and he once knelt on my leg to pull one of my particularly stubborn baby teeth. He was a wonderful dentist, and thankfully, took good care of me. I have little of the fear associated with dentists that many suffer from.

Today I had a wisdom tooth pulled. It had cracked, and while it wasn’t giving me any trouble, I knew it was just a matter of time.

So after some confusion over getting the bill paid (in advance!!) the nurse takes me into a back room where three syringes the size of large fountain pens lay on a table; there was a pile of tools laying under a towel, I suppose as much to prevent patients from freaking out as anything else.

The doctor comes back from lunch and gives me all three injections- I hate needles, but I hate pain more. I lay back and relax and wait for my toes to become numb. I’m beginning to have to be careful not to bite my thick tongue when he returns, and begins.

Now, I’ve never had a tooth pulled as an adult, but I don’t expect this to be pleasing; still, the doctor seems competent and nice. He has three nurses, and him, and me, in a room the size of a fairly small chifferobe. The largest nurse positions my head and begins to help pack several wads of cotton into my mouth, while the doctor and one of the other nurses start looking at the tooth. Doc picks up a pair of pliers and says “is it safe?” NOOO! No, he didn’t say that. What DID happen was the nurse put me in a half nelson and he started twisting and prying at the tooth. Almost immediately the top of the tooth came of with a snap like a bolt cutter shearing concrete, and he changes to smaller pliers; the roots are deep and strong, and he’s gonna have to mess with them before it comes out. At one point, he is actually using a hammer and chisel, or their “official dental tool” equivalent. Some cutting and grinding later, he starts pulling out the individual roots, which, according to their shape, are like barbs or hooks, and have to be rotated around and twisted to release them from the jawbone/gums. I’m numb enough that this isn’t much trouble, but I can feel the pain is gonna hit later, and later is now.

I have put an icepack on the side of my face for a while, but the scrip for Vicodin will do me much better, and I am just beginning to digest the vicodin. This should be an interesting evening.