Nervy Bitch

I am happy that medical times have changed and we've progressed.

No longer is my dentist, my barber, nor is my barber my dentist.
Thank GOD.

I had my first root canal done today. I guess when looking back, I've always had a problem with this bicuspid. You know, your "fang tooth", your "werewolf fang' or your pointy Count Dracula one. Upper left.

Had an abscess when I was a child in that tooth too, and luckily, it was a baby tooth, so when it fell out I thought my problem was done. Evidently not.

You heard the story that I was suffering last weekend of Sterling Faire and throughout the following wedding anniversary weekend with a toothache. It was difficult to get through.

Evidently, a deep filling last year, aggravated the nerve and it never "settled down"...it abscessed.

The nervy thing.

So I "bit the bullet' as it were. I opted, against my original will to never have a root canal, and decided to have the procedure done. When you hear so many horror stories about them, it's easy to get spooked.

I tried not to get too afraid, regardless of stories. I prayed about it, told myself I was in the Gods' hands, and would turn myself over to very skilled hands....and drove myself to the doctor and walked in. (of course I had to piss like a race horse all morning, being nervous...)

I mused that our language and slang doesn't help with the psyching out of the whole thing:

I mean check out the following common phrases:
"Nerved Up", "Nervous wreck", "She's "Nervy", "He's got a lot of nerve" ..."Getting to the Root of the problem" "Yank it by the Roots".

The Endodontist Doctor (they go to school for an extra 2 YEARS just to do root canals...and that's ALL they do....) & the kind Dental Hygienist were really very calming, It went easier than I thought it would be.
There were 5 digital x-rays that they took along the way, to check progress as it went.

The weirdest thing was the "mouth mask" or "face dam" that they use to isolate the tooth and to keep the area clean while drilling. It's like wearing a balloon on your face that you can breathe and swallow through.

Now, it's recovery for me, being gentle with myself, continuing the antibiotics (someday soon GOD, please, let me have a drink of alcohol) and scheduling appointments for the crown and ultimately increasing the credit line for the whole thing. Just an FYI, if you need one....the root canal was $915 this morning. Crown work will be almost another $1200. Which is another reason why I want a drink. Good God.
(fer fuck's sake....I nearly just paid off my cataract surgeries!)  Ah well...it's only money.

I will go ahead and get the crown done...I guess, for, without a crown, there is a risk to losing the tooth in the end. A crown is sort of like a "tooth slipcover". Which will make the tooth stronger now that it is weak and fragile without a nerve/root. Oh the things you learn on a Merlyn blog, eh?

I really don't have any other issues with my teeth except for this one thing, and I want to keep my pretty smile.

With ALL my teeth. Especially my pointy ones.

My maternal Grandma, Grandma James, lost her first tooth when she was 85 years old.
Damn. That's AWESOME!

So, because I am still one "Nervy bitch"....even if I have been "unnerved"....

I will need to flex my fangs and vampire bite in the future.

"RAOWR!"