Cape Karen
I have to go have some teeth extracted tomorrow, and I am a wreck! It's not like this is anything new ~ I've been sitting in the dentist chair since childhood. I've never had good teeth. I like to blame it on being born prematurely, but I think it is probably due to New England's unfloridated water and heredity. Whatever the cause, I have had more than the usual amount of dental work done over the years.
Back in 'the olden days' my dentist would pull any tooth that hurt, rather than try to save it. Therefore, I lost many permanent teeth while still young, and those that I have left have been filled, crowned, capped, root canaled and veneered. I could have purchased waterfront property or traveled the world with the money I've spent at the dentist.
We had an oral surgeon on the Cape who we called, "painless Parker." He pulled out our teeth under sodium pentathol, the "twilight sleep" drug that made the whole procedure almost enjoyable. You woke up sooooo relaxed that, when it started to wear off, you could actually feel every muscle in your body contracting back to its normally 'taut' state. But, I'm not going to have sodium pentathol tomorrow. Believe me, I would like to, but when I was told it would cost three times as much, per tooth, as having novacaine, I changed my mind. The cost of dental work and extractions these days is off-the-wall!
Now, the day before my appointment, I'm having a lot of second thoughts, like. . . "oh' what the hell . . . it's only money!"
The last time I had a tooth pulled with just novacaine I was pregnant with my first child, so I couldn't have the beloved "twilight sleep" drug. The dentist I saw at that time was an angry, sadistic, evil person who enjoyed pulling the wings off flies when he was a boy, and hated his mother. 
Having that tooth pulled was akin to having a limb torn off, and all these years later I can still recall the pain. (Childbirth was a piece of cake by comparison.) Crunnnnch, yaaaank, yank, pull, pull, crunnnnch, yank, pull. Painless Parker had spoiled me for sure! The worst part was the novacaine - o' yeah, the needle itself hurts like hell, but it's actually the numbing fluid, trying to seep into the soft tissue around the tooth, that causes most of the pain. And, if there is little soft tissue around the tooth, then the pain will be worse. I have no soft tissue around the four teeth that are to be pulled tomorrow!
I'm trying to bolster my courage and set the clock in my mind to "Brave." But, it isn't working. I'm trying to remember that others have gone through much, much worse pain than simply having teeth pulled, and they survived. . . but, that isn't working either. I've even tried loosening the teeth a little myself, to help things along, but the attempt at tooth-wiggling just plain hurts! Now, I have to decide if I can go through with this? The teeth do have to come out - to be replaced with some pretty porcelains - but which way to go?
I have until tomorrow morning to make up my mind; the dentist said he would refer me out to an oral surgeon, if I insisted. He tells me it isn't going to hurt that much (like I was born yesterday?)
I'll have to get back to you on this one.
But, in the meantime, while I'm deciding ~
please . . . go brush and floss your teeth!
Posted by Karen at April 12, 2006 10:35 AM