Thursday, February 06, 2003

Tooth

I knew the switch from American Spirit Lights to Nicorette was going to be a difficult one. The silver filling suddenly crumbling into my gum wasn't exactly what I had expected, but the tooth held, and the hole was fun to rub my tongue against.

What I forgot was that the hole was a cavity, and that cavities are nature's way of telling you that your body is falling apart...and that falling apart hurts like hell. Today at lunch I bit into a footlong with the works (kraut, cheese, relish, and guacamole because it was there in the Mexican Bar) only to feel a quick crack as the last thin layer of tooth over the root nerve, in the core of the molar, broke, followed by the most excuciating pain I have experienced since...nothing comes to mind.

Since then I've been in the kind of pain only possible for those who have stripped raw and exposed to the light an actual nerve. There was some sort of tooth-o-caine in the medicine chest, expiration date 3/00, which did no good whatsoever. Several times today I accidentally bit down on something on the wrong side of my mouth and got to relive that excruciating pain; each time, over the following hour, the pain didn't so much fade as it spread out, distributing itself across the whole jaw. Even eating pudding and jello hurts.

Tomorrow morning I have an emergency appointment with something called a dentist. It's been a decade since I last saw one. Once again, I become an object lesson. Sigh.

If they pull the tooth, as I suspect they do, I'll try to post a photo of it here. I bet you can see right through the cavity to the other side.

posted by boyhowdy | 12:15 AM |

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