I woke up this morning with my same typical mix of optimism and pessimism: pessimistic because I was tired; optimistic because the week is almost over. However, what my mom said soon after I hobbled out of my sleeping den sent my optimistic/pessimistic scales completely out of whack.
What did she say? Glad you ask…
“Did you remember you’re getting that tooth thing today? At 11?”
By “tooth thing” she meant, “getting my tooth drilled”. Wonderful, I know.
So, with that bit of knowledge my whole day consisted of a slow and tireless countdown to 11 o’clock. It finally did come, and I convinced myself it wouldn’t be too bad, because, after all, the dentist had told me when they were setting up the appointment that it would be such a minor drilling that I wouldn’t need Novocaine. He said I wouldn’t even feel it…
I left school early and arrived at the dentist’s office. I was immediately led down a small hallway to a corner room with a view facing the highway outside. The dentist’s assistant turned on the T.V in the top right corner of the room and I promptly changed it to the best channel I know: ESPN. Sportscenter was on and the Top Ten Plays of the Week were just getting started. I relaxed and the last thing on my mind was having a drill inserted into the back of my mouth.
About 15 minutes went by until the dentist and his assistant walked in very casually, speaking in a low tone about how I had a soft gap in my 31st tooth…blah blah…shouldn’t need Novocain….blah blah….
Anyways, the dentist did eventually start talking to me and asked me how I was feeling and if I thought I would want a Novocain shot. Knowing that I fear needles and can’t stand the sight of them, I opted for the no Novocain — of course the dentist reassured me that no pain would be felt, and that only the noise of the drill would be bad. He then sat down and immediately went to work.
The first two or three drills were nothing: I couldn’t feel anything, although seeing chips of my tooth flying out of my mouth was rather unsightly. The drill didn’t sound too bad and it was almost comical that I had this thing in my mouth. But after the third drilling “session”, I guess you could call it, he poked around on my tooth and told me that it was still soft and he would need to drill deeper in order to fill the tooth correctly. I nodded my head because I didn’t really know what I should say to that. While I was nodding and listening to the injury report for the Badgers basketball team on the T.V., he leaned over to his assistant and asked: “You think he needs Novocain for this? I don’t think I should be getting too close to the nerves…”
The assistant answered back: “I’m not sure…we might want to play it safe.”
“Nah, he’ll be fine…he looks like a pretty stoic guy.”
I, of course, assured him I was and that the previous drilling he had done was painless and that he should keep going — no Novocain needed because I hate needles.
The dentist then pulled back my mouth and reached in for a fourth drilling and, again, it was painless — for about one second. The next thing I know I can feel my tooth rattling and it feels as though a match has been lit inside the corner of my mouth. A large amount of tooth chippings flew out of my mouth like shrapnel. I quickly raised my hand and let out a pretty good: “OUCH…AHHH….WHAAA!!!”. And by pretty good I’m sure that you could hear it in the whole dentist facility.
The dentist pulled out the drill immediately, apologizing. He put the drill down and picked up his poker to poke the tooth again and see if it was still soft. To my dismay, it was.
Now I was faced with quite a choice: either bear the 3 seconds or so of excruciating pain from the drill; or, hyperventilate from the sight of a needle going in my mouth and have my entire mouth numb for the next 4 hours which would disallow me from going back to school.
Hmm…choices, choices.
I chose to endure the pain — he made it sound like it wouldn’t be as bad as the last one because he knew that he wouldn’t have to go much further.
So, I buckled up and grabbed my shirt and, with my other arm, began squeezing my leg as tightly as possible in order to distract myself. Then, I closed my eyes and pretended I wasn’t there. It worked to some extent. Finally, I let out a deep breath and said, “Go for it.”
The next 3-4 seconds were possibly the most painful I have experienced in years. I screamed like I was a melting witch. Most likely my screams scared the crap out of any insecure person who was waiting for their appointment to start.
The drill came to a screeching halt and he quickly pulled out his hand. My legs, hands, and chest were shaking. My heartbeat was going a million miles an hour. I thought we were done.
The dentist had to check one more time if the tooth was still soft — thank God it wasn’t. I would have ran out of there so fast they wouldn’t even have known I’d left.
Quietly, the dentist put his poking tool down and reached for another white tube and some cotton. He still had to put the enamel on my tooth. I’m very thankful however, that none of that hurt.
My tooth is still throbbing a little now. But I am sure that it was better to endure this pain now than get a cavity in the tooth they covered up. At least, that is what I’m telling myself.
ack. i cringed just reading it.
even worse is when you get the shot and STILL feel it. and then have no feeling for, oh, two weeks, except for imaginary cold water dripping down your lip. ah….yes. that was interesting.
dude, I went from laughing really hard to almost not feeling to well. You truly are a man. I am too much of a wuss to not have painkiller – actually i think that I would have tried to have them put me under!!