Tooth Tuesday

Last Tuesday, if you recall, was a terrific Tuesday for Tugboat, a Terrific Tugboat Tuesday. This Tuesday was no terrific at all. It was painful, hangry, frustrating and sad. No one died, I'm obviously being melodramatic, sorta. Nope, it was poor. I had to go to the dentist. But didn't I just go to the dentist last week? Yes, I rightly did. This wasn't the signal of good times ahead as I had hoped. It was a follow-up appointment. My dentist decided during my checkup that I should have a filling replaced. Now in his defense, this filling was likely upwards of 20-25 years old. Pretty near as soon as I had adult teeth I had set out to try and get a collection of fillings ya see. So this one is getting up there. Now me, I don't see how silver amalgam can just dissolve over time but he was telling me that he was concerned about the border where filling meets tooth and that maybe there could be a gap that develops there over time. I was of the mind that we should do what we gotta do to keep my chompers in good working order so I went along for the ride on this. His plan was to drill out the filling, and the better part of the inside of my tooth as it turned out, to replace it with something fresh. There was an area that he said looked suspect on the adjacent tooth also. Now, I'm not sure if it was the two things that added up to a necessity or if dentists are getting slammed in the recession or what the deal was but it got on the books. He had to double dose me with the needle to get my face to freeze up right before he started at me. I could smell that familiar, haunting scent of ground tooth and at times could feel the panic of my youth creeping in. At least I avoided the shame I used to feel when that drill whined this time, knowing I have much improved oral health. As we waited for the freezing to take, the small talk started up. He was asking me questions about my field of interest and I think I blew his mind again, this time about fear marketing and motivations behind things he sees in his favourite restaurants. Not long after that, we got down to business and it was on like I was sayin'. All's well that ends well I suppose. Everything was done up correctly but I forgot the terrible lingering pain of the freezing coming out and the double punctures of my jaw muscle. I got a headache from it too and was out of commission for a couple of hours, going so far as to go home and lie down. I got on a call late in the day and then frigged around work-wise, into the evening. I couldn't enjoy my handcrafted dinner that night and spent half my evening walking around trying to get my mind off the pain in my jaw and head. Slumber took me early and I'm hoping the worst is behind me. Although, he once again broached the subject of crowns on some of my teeth, too soon dude.