My Toothache Episode

I experience excruciating pain every time my tooth, actually two of them, would choose to ‘tease’ me with such agony. The pain is not only unbearable but it’s at the same time frustratingly annoying. Apparently, most of the time I go through this loathed moment was during times when I’m stressed or busy. So you could just imagine how it aggravates every tough situation.

Okay, so I don’t like going to the dentist but now the condition already called for it. I guess it’s time to suck it in and go though this pathetic ‘phobia’ in dentists. As I remember it, I only visited a dentist a few times during my childhood.

So I went to see a dentist last year in December. Surprisingly, I never felt that comfortable with a dentist before. I remember comparing a dentist as to that of a monster during when I was just a kid. I got my teeth thoroughly cleaned and had some temporary pasta on some of my ‘busy grinders’, everything my HMO card covered. I must say it relieved of the pain after that visit, so I thought.

Just when I thought I was over this painful episode, the agony went on after a few weeks of relief. Now this time my dentist didn’t see any reason or cause just by looking at my teeth. She suggested I had to have the teeth x-rayed—specifically, a panoramic x-ray. Not until I get this panoramic x-ray done, will my teeth be extracted. Did I mention I’m scared of dentists and tooth extraction?

So left with no other better option, I shed a few bucks (Php800) and the x-ray done just earlier today. The procedure was cool. It was like getting an MRI-- though I haven’t gotten one--only the machine ‘checked’ my teeth and not the entire body. But, man, I was surprise when the nurse (was she really a nurse?) asked me if I have any appliance inside my mouth! So I was like, “is that even possible?!”. Probably, she was referring to dentures and braces or anything foreign ‘installed’ in my mouth. But appliances? Wow, I can just imagine how spacious one’s mouth can be.

With the x-ray done, I called up my dentist’s clinic and set up an appointment with her this weekend. My dentist’s secretary even jokingly asked me, “sure ka na ba dyan, sir? (are you sure about that, sir?)”. After mustering all my wits, I told her I’m sure. Now it’s a done deal. I’m going to the dentist this weekend and face the unknown.