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Tuesday 17 September 2013

'Dental' torture

"Some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental." [ - This is going to hurt just a little bit, Ogden Nash]

For some reason, I have always remembered these lines from an old school poem. As destiny would have it, I realised a few days back, why i had remembered these lines for all these years. Because, i can now say, "SO TRUE!"

Yes, the event of me visiting a dentist, finally occurred in my life. My wisdom tooth, decided to suddenly grow in the X-axis instead of Y-axis (very unwise i would say) and left me with unbearable pain. So my dentist examined the X-ray and decided that my wisdom tooth (my only wisdom tooth) has to be uprooted, to avoid "infections in future". That is quite a scary phrase, which makes your mind to think only in the one direction - to go ahead with the tooth extraction. "It is a very normal procedure, don't worry" He assured.

So one fine Saturday, I was ready for the drill (literally). I was scared like a kid going for his first injection. When i sat on the dental chair, the dentist told something to the assistant, and the chair started moving up. My hands were cold. There were weird looking equipment in front of me with long wires. There were sharp, shiny instruments. Are these things going inside my mouth?! I was beginning to hyper-ventilate when suddenly my dentist appeared in front of me with a mask on his face. Oh my god! Is that..YES that is an injection in his hand. What is he going to do NOW! I opened my mouth to scream, but..

"yes, little more..open up your mouth" He said, and before i could pull myself together, the injection was in contact with my gums. It was the most horrible feeling EVER. Isn't there any easy way to do this at all? I felt like a Jew in a Nazi camp. He pulled out the injection and made me wait for 15 minutes for the local anesthetic to take effect.

After 15 minutes, I kept touching my teeth with my tongue to make sure I didn't feel anything , for at least a hundred times. My dentist also made sure, by tapping on it with some instrument which looked like a tiny hammer. I tried keeping my eyes open through the process, but couldn't. For one, the light above my head was as bright as the sun, and two, the weaponry they used looked very intimidating!

I can't quite describe the process that followed, but it never looked anything like they were working on part of a human body. They used drilling machines, for crying out loud! It was indeed like a road section (as mentioned in the poem) that was being worked on. Or even working on a clogged kitchen sink, maybe. That was the amount of force with which their hands were working. Thankfully i didn't feel a thing.

After they finally managed to pull out my tooth, they stitched it up with thread. I was drained out by then, with all the drilling and blasting and the concrete mixers , the smell of blood making me sick to my stomach. I came home happily, praising the effect of anesthetic.

Three hours later, well - AAAARRGGGGHHHHH. I couldn't eat, i couldn't speak, i couldn't even drink water or YAWN even! The pain level was beyond unbearable. Physical & mental - dental torture. Hope it is not a vicious cycle for me like Ogden Nash, but until then this is me with a swollen right cheek, saying "Please take care of your teeth"

PS: Here is the link to the famous poem by Ogden Nash


http://themindandthekeys.blogspot.in/2007/07/this-is-going-to-hurt-just-little-bit.html