Finally got a new set of glasses from the Optometrist today. I’d gone the previous week to get my eyes checked and get the whole prescription in for the labs to prepare the glasses and also had a dental filling. A few years back, I noticed that I couldn’t eat with the left side of my teeth. The left part in its entirety was out of bounds as far as eating was concerned.
I didn’t think much of it and people around me took it casually saying it was no big deal. I agreed with them and concluded that I just had sensitive teeth. From that time till a week ago, I was only eating with the right teeth. Before, I just couldn’t chew but I noticed it got worse with time. Like if as much as a morsel of food got near there, I’d have this painfully shocking sensation.
So, I disregarded further opinions from anyone and had my first ever trip to the dentist last week. He checked it and discovered that I’d gotten cavity up there in like two teeth at my left side. Said that the dental filling could take care of one but that the hole had gotten far too deep in the second tooth and the filling wouldn’t be enough to keep it going and so, I’d eventually have to take out that tooth.
I felt bad about the entire experience, especially when he said that it could have easily been avoided if I had made this trip at least a year before. So, the very next day, I got to get the filling done and let me just say, I see why people don’t like visiting the Dentist. I had what I suppose is anaesthesia injected into my gums. But I felt sceptical for some reason.
I had flashbacks from 2021 when I had a motorcycle accident and had to get stitches. I remember being given the anaesthesia but I felt the prick of the needle from the start to the finish. The Doctor then had been pissed off, chiding me for groaning in pain when I wasn’t feeling pain. Or wasn’t supposed to. I wondered then why I would be groaning and crying if I wasn’t feeling pain.
Fast forward to the present, I looked at the Dentist warily when he told me how the entire process was going to go. How he was going to drill in the teeth and do some scrapings before the actual filling. He assured me that the entire process was going to be about forty five minutes tops and that after the slight pain of getting the gum injection, I’d feel just about nothing.
I’m sure you guys must have already figured by now that that was not what happened. I felt pain. A lot of it. Especially with the drilling machine. The drilling itself wasn’t so bad but the side of it that was steady against my lips burnt bad. Each time I was asked to take a rinse, I’d inspect my lips and would not see a burn. Yet, the pain was there. Excruciating as ever.
Then, there was the shocking sensation. A similar imagery would be that of a welder. Or an ironsmith. That welding tool scraping against the metal and making those sparks fly, that’s how it was. There were no sparks in mine, of course, but that was just the sensation. Hated every single moment of it. The pain, the shocking sensation and everything in between. I felt it was my cross to bear for not visiting the Dentist on time.
Anyway, when the filling was done, I was grateful to be done with it all. He gave a few do’s and don’ts and I bade the entire Dentistry farewell, hoping that it would be a long while before I needed to return. Complete with my glasses, and I feel nearly ready to resume school. It had been nearly impossible studying and because of my upcoming tests, I felt the tension and the pressure weigh uncomfortably on my shoulders.
All of that has been lifted now and I’m ready to get all that studying and eating, of course, in motion. This was supposed to be a thoughtful and reflective post on how I’ve been doing lately but I’ve learnt to go with the flow when I can and that’s exactly what I did. Although it wasn’t completely savoury, glad I got to share this. Till next time...
Image is mine.
