Tooth Hurty

It's kind of funny that I'm now scheduled for the first root canal of my life, and that it's going to take place in Guatemala. What started out as mild discomfort in the right side of my upper and lower jaw, brought on, I thought, by my history of brushing my teeth with too much gusto, became an intense pain that didn't allow me to sleep for more than an hour at a time last night. Since it was at its worst when I was laying down, some of us around here reached the conclusion that there's probably an infection in my gum, so I ran out and bought an anti-inflamatory and antibiotics, which don't require a prescription, and my old maestra and friend Lucky called her dentist and arranged an appointment for me, and offered to drive me. I had to abort my lesson early today, as it was excruciating sitting there and I'd had some luck in alleviating the pain by moving. I'm sure when people saw me bailing early on my lesson they thought I had explosive diahrreah, as that's the usual reason. So I took a walk just to do whatever is the good thing to my blood pressure that makes my problem hurt less. It hurt so much! The whole right side of my face was aching, with locales of intense pain in my upper and lower jaw. The good part of the story is that I used the time to walk to Pais, a supermarket recently bought by Wal-Mart, and there I found some cereal I'd been missing. I can't handle much more white bread! The walking didn't really help, but then the drugs started to do their thing, and I felt so much better by the time Lucky swung by to pick me up that I thought it surely was an infection and that the antibiotics would fix it and that'd be that. To make a long story short, the dentist sent me across town to get an x-ray, there is an infection, but the problem is I have a large filling in one of my teeth that's too close to the nerve and it'd be best if it came out. This is the same thing a UCSB dentist told me over a year ago, but I guess I was waiting to be really motivated to remove the filling. Lucky said she'd heard of getting a second opinion before, but most people didn't go to another country to do it. Today the dentist drilled it and wiggled some wires around in there, getting gook out, and I have some cotton balls which I need to replace thrice daily in there until my next appointment in 10 days, at 5pm on a Friday. That seems like kind of a funny time to have a root canal, but anyway. Luckily it happened here and not in the wilds of Petén. And it's funny that I actually had my dentist appointment today at 2:30, because that's the punch line to an oldie but goodie. What time is your dentist appointment? Tooth hurty.

Kind of a bad day, but I'm grateful Lucky ferried me around and waited for me, and that now that my anesthesia is wearing off it's not hurting anywhere near as badly as it was. And if this root canal ends up being a good one that lasts a long time, I'll be happy to have spent around $105 on the whole thing, which I understand is considerably less than I'd pay in the US. Yay bargain dental work!