The Bad Tooth

1st January 2009

Allow me to pre-warn you that the following picture might put off some people and I am truly sorry for putting you off I guess...

You may want to skip looking at the photos... I can't make them extra small or anything. But yea.. I shall write a whole long description so that the photos might be out of the browser window and way below that you can't see them or something...

Anyway, where was I heading by all this. It was actually after the bbq night really... I didn't want to attach this post with that one since that one was such a nice and jovial event. Believe it or not, I more or less greeted the new year with a terrible toothache~!

Yes, a terrible tooth ache~! The one that is super duper irritating. My guess before anything was that I knew that while I was in Melbourne 2008, that one of my tooth filling came out... Had wanted to get it patched up so I thought it was that tooth that was given me problems.

We all know that to see the dentist, you normally have to book many many days in advance (well, at least the ones in my area... we only got 2 dentists). New year's morning, I sat down to place a booking with one of the dentist... They were fully booked for the week and could only slot me in the following week.

I was very much in misery and pain... that I took painkillers. I normally don't take them unless it's that bad. I always opt to sleep away the pain if I could. But yea, it was THAT bad. Dad could see that I was miserable so he helped me to call the other dentist and told them that we stayed nearby (which was true) and that we would take any available slot should one come up.

Surprisingly, 30 minutes later, they called back and dad immediately brought me to the dentist. (side note: it was my more favoured of the two dentist I'll add). Marcus (the dentist) proceeded to check the teeth... and as he was tapping my teeth (i really dislike that feeling), lo and behold, it was not the tooth that I expected but rather the wisdom tooth in the back (my left hand side, innermost).

That wisdom tooth had been trying to grow out but it couldn't. For years, I kept having to clear out food that get stuck there with the toothpick and stuff. Since it was way behind and out of reach, I guess it was about time that it would give me trouble.

Marcus could see that it was decaying and there was really no saving in the tooth... [shudders] He told Dad and I that it needed to be extracted. We took an x-ray and Marcus concluded that it might be a little tricky to remove it (aka dental surgery). He asked if we wanted to come back another day to prepare or he could do it then. Of course, we decided to do it then and there since who knows when he would be available next.

Marcus proceeded to prep us what was to come. He warned us that the extraction of the tooth might jolt some nerve and that if it did, I would lose feeling of certain part of my jaw for a few days... sounds scary I know but hell if I were to put up with the pain.

he estimated 20 minutes to settle it. not that he had much of a choice since his next appointment is 20 minutes later....

Ermm.. the details of the extraction.. sum them up... he gave me 3 injections to num the area (though at first, he only gave me 2 which were enough). He had to saw up the tooth... >__<

Marcus was my favoured dentist because he's more charismatic if compared to the other dentist. One word to sum up the other dentist: wood (muk in cantonese)... Though my younger sis prefers mr "wood" dentist since she doesn't like the small talks. [shrugs] I'm also the curious one so I would ask Marcus what he's doing sometimes. The only thing that wood dentist have an advantage over Marcus would be Marcus doesn't accept credit card... which is a bother since no one really carries that much money around...

right, so all the time during the extraction, marcus was doing small talk and kept apologizing and said that he didn't like to do that to a familiar? (sook in cantonese) patient. he's nice about it and was actually got the blasted tooth out in about 18 minutes. He wasn't rushing (not that he can... it's surgery after all) But yea, he did a few stitches to cover up the wound and made me bite the cotton? (it's not really the cotton cotton type) to soak up the blood.

my jaw and tongue was pretty numbed after that... he gave me some antibiotics and painkillers and told me to come back after a week to remove the stitches. He also told me that I may have to stick to liquids since the pain of chewing might be evident. He also gave me the blasted tooth~!

I took the photos after I got home la... You can see that it's all rotten-ish inside already... the top part got sawed off...
Side view of the blasted tooth... It was still a bit bloody..
a close up of the rotted part... XD If you may it this far, congrats. I did not gross you out THAT much. Though I will point out that you can poke it and it's soft-ish... [shrugs]

But yea... the first 3 meals were porridge and milo... I got very much better by the 2nd day and was back to eating solids (slowly). hehehe~! I guess my love for food sped up the healing process? [lol] But I was extremely glad to have the pain go away. I really can't imagine having to wait 7 days with THAT thing in my mouth... [shudders]

Thanks daddykins for helping me push the receptionist to place the booking. [hugs] Cheers~!