To get a tooth out without sedation, they numb you up with lydocaine shots in the gum on each side of the offending tooth. Then they wait a while and shoot more in there.
While we waited today, I let loose with just how I feel about having called and come by so often and not getting an estimate until yesterday. He said he would talk to his staff. I said I hoped he realized that did me NO good at all now.
They use a metal spoon thing to hold your cheek out of the way and put a metal band on the tooth in front of the one being pulled to keep it from being chipped if it gets knocked against.
The tooth puller device is basically a smaller version of a dinosaur head on a stick, it had a little handle on one end and a gripper on the other.
To get a tooth out that is otherwise designed to stay in place even after the body decays, takes work. And rotation. Not much back and forth wiggling as it was going around and around. This leaves a gaping hole in the gum that still bleeds some 9 hours later.
It took about 4 minutes to get the tooth out, he did not stop once he got going, though I tried to tell him my lip was folded under the grabber and he was grinding it into my lower teeth. 4 minutes can be a very long time.
I did not know when the tooth came out, he stopped yanking and set down the puller thing and told me how to fold the gauze pads for the blood. I started poking back there with my tongue and discovered-no tooth!
To get a tooth out that is otherwise designed to stay in place even after the body decays, takes work. And rotation. Not much back and forth wiggling as it was going around and around. This leaves a gaping hole in the gum that still bleeds some 9 hours later.
It took about 4 minutes to get the tooth out, he did not stop once he got going, though I tried to tell him my lip was folded under the grabber and he was grinding it into my lower teeth. 4 minutes can be a very long time.
I did not know when the tooth came out, he stopped yanking and set down the puller thing and told me how to fold the gauze pads for the blood. I started poking back there with my tongue and discovered-no tooth!
It was not as bad as I imagined. I was worried that I would FEEL the tooth sluck out of the hole. He would not let me even look at the tooth, though I did ask for it to put in my holy water bottle. I had to settle for sprinkling the used gauze and saying 'demon infection be gone'. Well, I mumbled it anyhow. I thought about saying it in Latin, malum contagio, licentia, but I was slurry. Who knows what I might have really said? I might have invoked something worse than an abscessed tooth-though what that could be, I have no idea.
Now to begin the process of healing and knowing that the pain won't come back. I took a Demerol about an hour after the procedure. It was like taking an oblivion pill, I don't know why they don't use those instead of sedation. Also, I weigh about double what Jessie weighs and she's only $15 to sedate. Just saying.
I have consumed a can of chicken noodle soup, it was visceral. Hot, salty, slippery noodles. I slurped and gulped, it was quite satisfactory, I was so hungry. The vanilla pudding was not quite as thrilling.
I have consumed a can of chicken noodle soup, it was visceral. Hot, salty, slippery noodles. I slurped and gulped, it was quite satisfactory, I was so hungry. The vanilla pudding was not quite as thrilling.
incipio vigoratus!
