Dentists
and Wisdom Teeth
Its official, I am
terrified of dentists. I am not sure how
or why the fear started; I remember when I was wrong that I had to have a tooth
removed, it was a tooth growing between my two top teeth. It had quite a claw on it and took some
pulling to get it out. I remember being ‘gassed’
at the dentist.
I also had a couple of fillings
in my late teens, but they went painlessly.
One of my big earlier memories (probably around the age of 11) was my
mum going to the dentist for a filling. However,
the drill broke in her mouth and cut the inside. I am sure it was painful, and it remained a
big deal to my mum up until she died nearly 40 years later.
So, when I started
having issues with my wisdom teeth in my late 20’s, I was concerned. To start with the dentist ‘threatened’ to
take them out in his chair but on further investigation, decided I would need
to go to hospital to have all 4 of them out.
By this point I owned a pub
in North Devon and so went off to Barnstable hospital where I was duly knocked
out and tortured for nearly 4 hours. I
came out looking like I had been 6 rounds with Mike Tyson … apparently, they were
not easy to extract! They required a
knee on my chest by all accounts. I did
not really care at the time as the painkillers I was given were great, I did
not realise how great until after I went home and tried walking my dogs the
next day. My walk reminded me of Michael
Jackson’s Moon dance, it was as if I did not quite have control of my own legs
and feet.
Fortunately, since then,
I have only needed a crown from a crack caused by a pork scratching. The trouble is, I am so nervous that my legs
will involuntarily kick out and I make so much saliva that I am almost
impossible to work on. It turns out I
also have a relatively small mouth which does not help proceedings.
I will remember to
invoke Saint Apollonia in hope that I never have to go to a dentist again, and
dentists should probably invoke Saint Apollonia before having to work on me, if
I do!
Comments
Post a Comment
You are welcome to comment but please, no offensive language, and try to play nicely