Tooth

Today Dr. F. pulled my nasty tooth out for me. Wasn't that nice of him? My jawbone is pretty dense, so there was a lot of tugging involved. Plenty of work for him, and I'm very grateful.

Ouch.

What happened is, I was flossing my teeth last Thursday and it snagged a filling and pulled it right out. At first there was a dull ache, and I couldn't afford to go to the dentist, so I took Ibuprofen and hoped the pain would go away, but yesterday it escalated intensely. So my writing partner recommended her dentist, who works walking distance from where I live, and he was able to take me this morning.

The lost filling was a very deep one, below the gum line, and this being a wisdom tooth, it was not worth trying to save a second time. This is only the second tooth I have had extracted. The first, a premolar, was lost to a botched root canal in 1984.

As a teenager I needed a lot of dental work. Nice, straight teeth, but the enamel was not so good. My dentist at the time asked whether I had ever had a high fever. Yup, when I was seven I had pneumonia. That was just when my adult teeth were budding, and they all ended up with a weak line.

Because my wisdom teeth did not come in until I was 14, they escaped. My jaw is wide (my fingertip fits around the corner behind the teeth), and those four were straight, so there was no immediate cause to pull them. I believe the three remaining are the only teeth in my mouth that have never had a cavity.

I just hope no more fillings decide to fly the coop anytime soon. This was my first visit to a dentist in more than five years, and fortunately it was not too expensive. General anesthetic would have been nice, but I guess this way was more interesting.