Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The day I lost my wisdom

Having to go to a dentist is like one of those things you think happens only to other people. So when the time came for me to make that visit, I couldn’t believe it was happening to me.

My third molar, and the only one that had managed to ‘erupt’, was developing a cavity by virtue of it being in the far left corner of my mouth. When the doctor’s assistant checked it, she declared, “You have a silver filling.” 
“But I’ve never been to a dentist before,” I said, immediately doubting myself. “Or have I?”

Just as I was hoping that it was a silver filling after all, a little prodding and better lighting revealed that it was indeed a huge cavity. “You’ll have to get it extracted,” was the verdict.

So I braced myself and made my way to the dentist some 2 weeks later. An hour and 2.5 (instead of just one) jaw-numbing injections later, I was minus 4K and a wisdom tooth. The strong little fellow was sitting bleeding in a glass bowl on the doctor’s table, and as far as wisdom teeth go, he was big and “bulbous.”


And if I wasn’t the one reclining on the dentist’s chair, I would have sniggered at the regular, “Open your mouth. Wider. WIDER!” And not to forget, “Try not to swallow.”

Hey… don’t blame me for cracking up at this. I just got my wisdom tooth removed.

2 comments:

Arjun said...

The last time I went to a dentist (for light cleaning), I ended up swallowing large amounts of the dental solution (in my defense, it tasted minty and nice) and it wasn't until halfway through the procedure that she bothered to inform me that I should try not to swallow the solution. Yeah right. Let's just say there was a lot of hand-waving and panicked gurgles for the rest of the procedure. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done...

Traveling Hazy said...

LOL! Exactly! It tasted minty, until my food pipe started closing in! Gosh...