root canal, domesticity, and I forgot the other thing
on Catherine Dupre (Mongolia), 16/Nov/2010 02:47, 34 days ago
So - I went to the dentist..........I had been given the telephone number of a Korean dentist, who spoke perfect english, and who was very suave and charming. I almost found myself fawning.  Almost.He Xrayed my tooth (as has been done several times before, by every dentist I go to telling them about the pain.  As a healthcare professional, I recognise very well the look on the face that accompanies their glance at my Xray, it says "you're faking/imagining/hawking for drugs).  Of course there was nothing to see, tho my friend Yadma who had come to hold my hand said she saw the Xray and I had very beautiful inner teeth.  So it wasnt all bad.Anyway, he says, no cracks, no holes, but a very very deep filling.  In fact, its more filling than tooth.  (in my head at this point I see Alec Guiness as Obi Wan Kenobi's ghost telling Luke about Darth Vader, "he's more machine than man now" in that fabulous singysongy voice that I put on to make my sister laugh so hard she cant breathe). ANYWAY - upshot is he wants to drill it out, and refill.  I am carried along by the suave, and by trying not to laugh at the alec guiness thing, and so i dont even look to see if the needles are clean, oops.So he injects me, and i numb up, and he drills and i dont like it, but its more painless than any dentist i ever saw in the UK (every time I go to the dentist in the Uk I need to take a "time out" - seriously, I dont know what is wrong with me, I just hate having a strange man's fingers filling my mouth and sticking thing in it that hurt).  He puts in a temp filling, and says, if the pain continues, come back on tuesday and he will do root canal. At these words my world goes into slow motion, like in the movies, I say "what" in a voice that sounds like I left half my palate at home,more like "ghuhut" and i watch his lips as he says again"rooooooooooot caaanaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllll"I dont even know what it is, but it sounds so heinous that the muscle under my eye is twtching, but my britishness is irrepressible - "LOVELY!" i profess brightly, "how wonderful.  When can we do it, tuesday?  Splendid, I cant wait, awfully jolly of you to fit me in, what, i say, wont that be a gas.  well, orf i go, back in a couple of days.  toodle pip."Suddenly I am bertie wooster, and suddenly my world has collapsed.  I cant have root canal, i will die.  probably, maybe, highly likely at the very least.  I cant NOT do anything because i will die, probably.  So I stop trying to make a decision and just curse my rotten luck and my even more rottener crappy teeth, and my maxillo facial neural pathways, if it wasnt for them all would be fine and I wouldnt feel like something with claws was burrowing into my jaw using my tooth nerve as a hand rail.So - thats today, five hours til root canal.  I feel kind of sick, although (v naughty I know, shhh dont tell the BMA) a friend of mine has given me a little something designed to help hysterical housewives, so I am planning to pop this little blue about 30 mins before drill commencement and I hope this will subdue me somewhat.It is -15 outside, I have strted wearing thermals, I forgot that I actually like them, mine, like all of my clothes, are skin tight - and I feel snug and serene in them, its like a full body hug from silk and lambs wool (no messing about with viscose darling).I actually want it to get colder now.  I wont have long to wait, its getting into the -20s at night now.righto - I have heard tell of an american in the hospital, and I am going forth to investigate.bayarte