Bummer

Today I went to the dentist for my first root canal. Meaning, I've never had one before, not the first of many. It sounds so awful that of course I was stressed about it, and then this morning I woke up with a full-blown cold. Actually, it kept me awake for much of the early morning hours with a leaky nose, but the dentist office wanted me to come in anyway, so it was a lovely day all around. Then it got better. Turns out that my roots in that tooth are especially long -- or maybe the dentist office didn't have the proper supplies on hand (I overheard a part of a conversation during the procedure between the assistant and the dentist) -- but the gist of it is that he couldn't get the pulp out of the entire tooth root clear to the tip, so I am being sent to a "root canal specialist" to finish the job. Oh goodie. I have never been a fan of the dentist. The worst part of the whole procedure, of course, is the novacaine (or whatever they use nowdays to deaden things); I don't like the needle and my face is lopsided until it regains feeling. Once that part is done, a root canal isn't much different than any other filling (so far) except the drilling seems to be extra high-pitched and quite loud nowdays.

So next week is root canal part II. He is sending me to TriCities instead of keeping me in ML, thinking they could get me in quicker. I don't know who might have been the "root canal specialist" in town here either. Once it's finally done, I come back to ML for the crown over the whole tooth ... they crown root canal teeth nowdays since they are prone to cracking and breaking. Three times in a dentist chair for one tooth. Bummer. But probably better than the other option he gave me, which was to pull the tooth -- I didn't think that was even an option these days. Right now it's got a temporary filling and half of my face is still numb.

Bottom line, Kiddos, is always brush and floss. But apparently even then "things happen," so go to the dentist at least once each year so things don't get out of hand like mine did. Much as I want to complain to someone, this was my own fault for procrastinating too long.