Oh boy, I can’t feel my face. Three hours in a dentist’s chair. It went something like this:
Dentist: okay we’re going to fill this cavity now. (buzzing of drill)
BooMan: I don’t like the sound of that.
Dentist: (laughing) No one does.
BooMan: (grimaces)
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
BooMan: (white hot flashes of nerve pain)
Dentist: I’m barely touching you.
BooMan: (drooling)
(half hour interlude while more anesthetic kicks in)
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Dentist: this hole is really big, let me see the x-rays again….
Dentist: I think this is going to require a root canal. I should have realized this before we got started.
BooMan: (to myself) Oh fuck (panic) (out loud) Oh Jesus. Are you going to do that now?
Dentist: oh no, we don’t do molars here, you’ll need a referral.
I suggest you get on over to the Cafe and have a stiff one before novacane wears off. I have had several root canals…not as bad as everyone tells you. I think they are easier than the drilling. Either way, I hate going to the dentist and that is next on my list. I thought I would get the new DL pic first so I can look like a redneck broad…lol. Just kidding!
The po’ man’s solution: Get the tooth pulled. I’m missing a couple molars and get along fine without them. They’re far enough back in my mouth that it’s not obvious.
Root canals are gross, imho.
believe me, I was thinking seriously about how much that molar meant to me. Plus, in this office they have a big poster that explains the process of the root canal right in front of the chair. I’ve read it 1800 times, since all I do is read, and I’m stuck there with nothing else to do.
I am not psyched.
ALSO! You get that great hollow-cheeked look favored by top fashion models*.
__
*Who actually get their molars pulled to get that look.
LMAOROTF…you are just too quick and funny girl! LMAOROTF still…oh my god I cannot stop laughing, tears coming down the hollowed out cheeks as I type.
Wait a minute – you’re not serious, are you? They don’t really! /creeped out
They really really do. I mean, think about it. When’s the last time you saw a fashion model eating corn on the cob?
I’m so totally creeped out right now. As Buffy would say, “Care to throw in a little foot binding?”
I just found a cute site: Adios, Barbie!. You can play a little game where you feed a model lots of fattening food. Tee hee!
I’m gonna be throwing cheesecake at that model all night.
Poor Boo. I’ve had root canals. Not to worry. They’re annoying to get but their painful reputation is inflated. (This coming from someone who’s been putting up w/ massive pain for a few weeks. Maybe my perception is slightly skewed…hmm..)
I have had three and only one even caused pain afterwards. None of them hurt while in process. You can have a tooth pulled but then the others can shift in your mouth and cause they to go crooked, or more crooked than they already are (if indeed they are not straight now)
I say save your tooth as long as you have the insurance to do so.
Just want to chime in with my agreement that root canals get a bad rap. I had my first one a year or two ago and it was expensive, but not nearly as painful as people had made it sound. I just made the guy keep giving me drugs until I couldn’t feel anything. The infection that required the root canal was much more painful than the procedure.
Of possible tangential interest, I also once had a molar pulled, and in that case it turned out I had a wisdom tooth that hadn’t shown on previous x-rays, so it dropped and replaced the tooth I had pulled. So, if all else fails, there’s always holding out hope for a Magical Replacement Tooth.
Hope you feel better soon, BooMan.
Boo, while you’re still numb, now’s the time to pierce your lip or tongue! Woohoo!
having trouble drinking this beer.
I am comforted by all the people that say root canals don’t hurt that much.
But, if my root canal is really painful I am coming after you. 🙂
The funny thing about the tooth is that I had zero pain, and was unaware I even had a cavity. The x-ray was ugly, but there was still plenty of space between the cavity and the root. I wish she had just filled the damn thing.
Why would you come after me?! I’m the one who told you to pull the damn tooth!
All dentists are crooks. Except one in Seattle I know. They’ll recommend all kinds of stuff you don’t need…. one of Darcy’s favorite memories is when the dentist who lived next door to my mom saw Darcy when she was little. He forced her to get that fluoride coating on her teeth, and she promptly threw up all over him.
it’s your ass Susan!
You should have convinced me to have it pulled.
BTW- I brought ‘What it Takes’ with me and read the first chapter about H.W. throwing out the first pitch, and then I skimmed through to read all the Biden/Bork stuff. God, I love that book.
If, when the cavity nears the root(s) and your dentist tries to fill it, every time you bite into your ice cream on that molar, you’ll go through the roof. Fillings don’t offer much in the way of insulating properties
She doesn’t want you to suffer, so recommends having your root “killed,” the tooth filled, and you spending the rest of your life pain free.
Haven’t had a root canal, but spouse did (due to infection, which WAS painful) and suffered not a whit.
Only dental procedure beyond prophies and fillings that I’ve ever had occurred this spring when I broke a tooth chewing my favorite of all foods — unpopped popcorn kernels. Can’t do that anymore. The expensive new cap can’t take it!
My tooth didn’t hurt either. My dentist had removed the old filling and discovered that my tooth was cracked. She wanted me to have a root canal then, but I had no symptoms and I was scared so she put a crown on it and I went home.
About a year later that tooth became senstive to cold, heat, sugar, wine, balsamic vinegar, etc. The dentist said the root canal was no longer optional.
The only thing that hurt during the procedure was the first shot of Novocaine.
Good luck. Tell us all about it.
okay, so it’s not fun but it’s also not the worst medical procedure you can have done to you…(ever had to have dye injected up your urethra or wear a catheter for a week?)
It’s basically like a long drawn out filling. Have to keep your mouth open for a long time so your jaw gets sore, but once you’re numbed up it’s fine.
(I’m a hard numberer, if there’s such a word, so they had to eventually inject the novacaine needle directly into the nerve! Ouch! Ooops, I shouldn’t have told you that!)
I second that – nothing makes you feel better like a stiff drink and a little prognostication.
When you’re in the dentist’s chair, do you ever think of Dustin Hoffman in “Marathon Man”? I do.
Ouch. That’s helpful. 🙂
having two fillings replaced.
Aside from the “gee, that bit of drilling struck a nerve” fun, there was the bizzare conversation between the dentist and his (very) young assistant about drinking and gambling to endure as well.
I feel your pain – really.
I had an old filling break towards the end of last year – part of it is still there, but the rest went down the hatch with a bite of peanut butter & jelly bagel. I’ve been putting off getting it replaced because I don’t have a dentist in CA – I knew I would be home again this summer and could go to my guy. I’m afraid, though, that I’ve totally f*cked it up by waiting.
Does anyone know: if I had f*cked it up, would it hurt? Cuz it doesn’t.
for at least 6 months.
The only problem that caused was having to carry a toothpick to get out any food that got stuck in the divet.
…The two words you never want to hear your dentist say!
Seriously, though, I want to chime in with the others above that I found my root canal to be surprisingly pain-free. Especially after the toothache (over a holiday weekend, of course!) that led up to it, which had me in periodic episodes of mind-numbing pain, between which I would think “If I only had a gun to end it all right now.”
I am wondering if you can do something about the rec. diary list to shorten the time diaries stay on there. That and the duplicate nature of the World diaries is keeping many old diaries up a long time, meanwhile other diaries have no chance at all to rise up the list.
I think it also might be a good time to talk about site etiquette and other issues that have come up….you know like the ones we used to have…
Seems to me this site is becoming Kossified and is losing the qualities of the site we so liked prior to the great influx…can we talk about that?????
Are we newbies causing problems? I’d hate to think I was inadvertantly kossifying the site.
Yes, please let’s have a discussion.
It’s all your fault.
We could unrecommend diaries that’ve been up a day or two. I do that sometimes, but forgot to for the past week.
I second that. I’m sick of seeing my diaries up there.
Wait.a.minute…
unreliable,,,, many rec. and then don’t come back for days to the site. Booman has talked before about this, it can be set I think to drop off earlier…
I think there are a lot of issues we need to talk about…But I think booman should start the discussion.
Here’s a funny site I just Stumbled Upon: it’s the Department of Homeland Panic. I about lost it when I saw ‘Heart-eating terrorists’ under the ‘Be scared of’ list.
My dentist fired me because of the type of dental insurance I have. I am retired and get some insurance through my old company, although it is very temporary. I have Delta with “POD” on it. I wonder if that means they only pay the claim if someone threatens to put the claims clerk at the “Point of Death”???? What is dental work after the insurance goes? Just yanking them all out?
With Delta, POD means “pile of dung”, which referes to their allowable payments for services.
When I go to the dentist, I take an iPod to drown out that ghastly sound. CD player and headphones works too.
Original source unknown….:{)
We are calling on Karl Rove to resist his temptations and stop trying to reap political gain in the tragic misfortune of others. His comments are not welcome.
Families of September 11 is a non-partisan nonprofit organization founded by the relatives of those who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001. For further information, please visit our website at http://www.familiesofseptember11.org
Booman, how I feel for you!!!!!!! I know exactly how you feel…God love ya, man…hang in there…the alternitive to all of this is not good either…:o(
BooMan, I had a wisdom tooth taken out today so I empathize more than you know!
When I was a kid, 40 some years ago, our dentist didn’t even use novacaine. It was just drill and fill.
Going to the dentist now seems like a walk in the park.
The root canal won’t be as bad as all the referral bullshit.
Time for a new dentist, bro.
Check out the analysis from the BBC, where most of the world prefers China to the U.S.
Pax
whatever you do, please do not change the site layout. Methinks your traffic is going to spike again for…ahem…reasons I will not mention aloud.
um..could you give us a hint? Or fair warning or something?
=)
Well man, its 3 in the morning and I am a little slow. I have been studying for the GD dmv test in a few hours so I am a bit foggy. Should I go over to another unmentioned site and see what is going on? And what are you doing up at this hour young man?
pretending I was still in college. Thursday nights are a great deal for partying in a college town. I couldn’t resist logging on when I got home, so here I am.
Did you go to the Cactus Moon or is that place even still there. It was the hot place to go back around 90. I used to go to Chicago Bar for the Raggae music. I loved to dance.
Just went to Dkos and my eyes hurt. What do you think of the new layout? Will will have another big wave of folks? Then do we have to have another big wave of Dkos layout hurts my eyes diaries here…lol? I gotta go try and grab a few more winks. See you later my friend!
I knew subtely would work.
The Cactus Moon is still around. I was there a couple of weeks ago for a friend’s b-day. The Chicago Bar is still around too, great live music (Tucson is great for live bands huh!)
The layout is…different; but that’s all I’ll say here and will refrain from further references.
Have a good night, see you on the flipside of the morning.
Paz
Night…and I agree about not discussing that subject here.
Your dental experience sounds awful! I had my first root canal recently and after the dentist dropped his tools a couple of times he said, “I shouldn’t have had that margarita at lunch.” (He was joking.)
The root canal wasn’t so bad. I won’t be so scared next time.
I hope yours goes well.
I enjoyed going over how unpleasant it was going to be for you right before you walked out the door. Sounds like it lived up to your expectations! ;]
And wipe that drool off your chin…..