Percussion Sensitivity

If you liked the birthday present I gave my husband, you will love the Christmas present I gave myself. A great big thumping toothache. I went to the dentist and got some cavities filled a while ago, and ever since then something has been wrong with the left side of my mouth. I went to the dentist and said I was having a problem and he just gave me some of that toothpaste for sensitive teeth. I wasn't sure which tooth was causing the pain because it wasn't a real intense stabbing pain, more like a 'what the hell is wrong over there' pain. I thought it was the tooth with the enormous crater, but last weekend I found out for sure it was the next one down. It started really hurting, and my jaw swelled all up Sunday and Monday.

I went back to the dentist Wednesday and he looked at my tooth. I told him which one it was and he took some little metal thing and tapped the Tooth From Hell a couple of times. 'Oh, the pain, the pain,' as Doctor Smith from Lost in Space would say. In a real professional tone, the dentist told his assistant there was percussion sensitivity in whatever number the Tooth From Hell is. Percussion sensitivity, right. Freaking agony more like it. I wanted to see if his crotch had percussion sensitivity.

So he gave me a prescription for some pain pills and antibiotics. If I do the yogurt wipe I'm keeping it to myself.

Now I'm bumming out about my tooth. The dentist told me I could either spent $1,500 to $2,000 on a root canal and crown, or $300 to $500 on yanking it out of my mouth. I remember the other root canal I got from this dentist. It wasn't until after he gave me the root canal that he even mentioned needing to get a crown. Skinner. I was lucky I could afford it back then, but now I can't, even with the awesome insurance I have. So out comes the Tooth From Hell.

This is the second, or third, tooth I've had pulled. It's hard to decide if I've had one tooth or two teeth pulled already because I had the same tooth pulled twice. How is that possible? I had a cavity when I was really little, and the dentist decided for some reason to just pull the tooth instead of filling it. Maybe Mom can remember what was up, but I was too little to remember the details. I just remember getting it pulled out. It was a baby tooth, and would have fallen out sooner or later, but unfortunately after it got pulled out the rest of my teeth noticed the extra leg-room and spread out a little. Then when the permanent tooth was ready to come in there wasn't any room at the inn, so the tooth came in pointing right into the side of my tongue. The dentist decided to just yank that tooth out, too, instead of getting braces and forcing my teeth back into place. So I had tooth number whatever pulled twice.

I'm not really looking forward to the day of yanking. I'm going to miss that molar. On the other hand I'm not going to miss the pain shooting down my tooth, into my jaw, and down into my shoulder every time I chew on something hot, or cold, or crunchy, or basically anything except maybe pudding or oatmeal, on that side of my mouth.