Ahhhhh my teeth my teeth my teeth my teeth....
x4 to honor my teeth.
It was bloody brutal. I felt the drill bore into my solid munchers as the dentist applied a controlled but strong pressure with it. I felt my blood spill out of my gums, its faint taste, just before his assistant rushed in to suck it up with the tiny vacuum cleaner. I felt the sharp instruments prick and prod and cut into my soft tissue to make space for the string that would tie around each of my teeth, and forcibly lever each of them back and forth to weaken their root hold. I saw strings, I saw metallic instruments, I saw two faces looking at me the whole time, telling me to breathe in deeply through my nose. I inhaled the laughing gas, but did not laugh. I barely felt anything due to it except some tingling in my fingers and feet. I felt the initial pinches dully, at least eight of them, then felt little else around the pinch areas. I felt only the sound and the pressure of the relentless drilling, but not an ounce of sharp pain. Thank you, researchers of the effects of chemical compounds on our nervous systems.
The useless feeling of caution did not completely fade during the whole while, but I did get to a point when boredom exceeded it. My physical options were limited, but I could hum. So I hummed. First Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Then other assorted ditties derived from classical songs. Ke$ha's Tik Tok song came along, which reminded me of Timber, so I went with that one as well. That's when the assistant said "hey, I know that song!", and momentarily lost her focus on my mouth. I'm glad she wasn't holding the sharp stuff, because she then grazed my tongue unintentionally with whatever she was holding. But then it was all good.
I felt solid matter creaking and cracking within my mouth when the dentist pulled and pushed my teeth around. I sensed hardly anything at the moment of extraction, but I could tell that's what it was when he suddenly turned around to the equipment table, and she rushed in with her little vacuum to prevent me from drowning in my own blood, or spilling the thick red stuff on my own face. I wondered whether at times he managed to pull out only a piece of the tooth, and he had to go back to pull out the rest. I think he did, especially for the one mostly buried within the gum. Extracting that tooth was amazingly similar to the rest of them, though. I'm sure there were knives involved.
I hummed the end of Beethoven's 9th when the last one was being pulled out. "The grand finale", she said. I remembered that spy parody movie where the bad guy wants to blow up the Disney center in Los Angeles when the end of that symphony was reached. So yeah, E E F G G F E D C C D E E D D, E E F G G F E D C C D E D C C. I got in a few repeats, and it felt fitting. I really wanted to "honor" my teeth somehow.
Oh yeah, I hummed the Requiem as well for a while. I didn't remember most of it, though. Any one voice of the first movement sounded pretty plain, and I couldn't quite make a full part of it. That's when I decided to hum Ke$ha's.
A little gagging afterwards, a sheet of paper filled with instructions. No nuts, no crunchy stuff for a month. Very gentle teeth brushing, antibiotics every six hours, gauze change every hour. Oh yeah, gauze change!! BRB.
The back of my mouth feels gapingly empty (does that make sense?) The pieces of gauze are coming out with less blood each time, and I feel amaizngly little besides a dull aching where my teeth used to be.
Wisdom teeth. Did they give me wisdom? Or maybe the act of extracting them did? Or maybe it takes wisdom to remove them? "Thou shalt pull out thy corner teeth". I had been feeling a slight pressure on the gums, sometimes in the corners, after exerting myself even for a few minutes - e.g. running a mile at a pace just beyond my comfort zone (which has been getting notoriously narrower during the past few months and years, I've noticed). My mind blamed my corner teeth, so I managed to convince myself that my dentist's recommendations were acceptable. So out came the corner teeth. I just needed a plausible excuse.
So now I have three bunches of pills. Antibiotics, anti-pains, and other anti-pains I got at the pharmacy. Narco, I think? It does not honor its own name - after swallowing two of them, I feel even more alert that I usually do at this time (~1900). They might just start working if I stopped writing and just eased my head in a rested, supine position. I feel like writing, though.
What else? They told me to drink lots of water. Will do. It's not hard to acquire, and hydration feels good.
What else? They told to put ice on my face. Well, I had none, but my advanced chemical education has prepared me for this moment. In an astounding burst of DIY ingenuity, I filled up the two plastic bags that previously held the gauzes they gave me, put them in a pot in the freezer, and after an appropriate time, I shall magically own two cold bags filled with ice. One for each cheek. Now I just need to find a way to stick 'em to my face (I have no convenient adhesives).
What else? Water again, I guess. My lips do feel dry, and something has to replace the copious rivers of blood I lost today. If I like homeostasis, that is.
But yes, it was bloody and it was brutal. Amazingly painless, but I haven't gone through convalescence just yet, so...... let's see how the rest of the month comes along. I hope swimmingly.
x4 to honor my teeth.
It was bloody brutal. I felt the drill bore into my solid munchers as the dentist applied a controlled but strong pressure with it. I felt my blood spill out of my gums, its faint taste, just before his assistant rushed in to suck it up with the tiny vacuum cleaner. I felt the sharp instruments prick and prod and cut into my soft tissue to make space for the string that would tie around each of my teeth, and forcibly lever each of them back and forth to weaken their root hold. I saw strings, I saw metallic instruments, I saw two faces looking at me the whole time, telling me to breathe in deeply through my nose. I inhaled the laughing gas, but did not laugh. I barely felt anything due to it except some tingling in my fingers and feet. I felt the initial pinches dully, at least eight of them, then felt little else around the pinch areas. I felt only the sound and the pressure of the relentless drilling, but not an ounce of sharp pain. Thank you, researchers of the effects of chemical compounds on our nervous systems.
The useless feeling of caution did not completely fade during the whole while, but I did get to a point when boredom exceeded it. My physical options were limited, but I could hum. So I hummed. First Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Then other assorted ditties derived from classical songs. Ke$ha's Tik Tok song came along, which reminded me of Timber, so I went with that one as well. That's when the assistant said "hey, I know that song!", and momentarily lost her focus on my mouth. I'm glad she wasn't holding the sharp stuff, because she then grazed my tongue unintentionally with whatever she was holding. But then it was all good.
I felt solid matter creaking and cracking within my mouth when the dentist pulled and pushed my teeth around. I sensed hardly anything at the moment of extraction, but I could tell that's what it was when he suddenly turned around to the equipment table, and she rushed in with her little vacuum to prevent me from drowning in my own blood, or spilling the thick red stuff on my own face. I wondered whether at times he managed to pull out only a piece of the tooth, and he had to go back to pull out the rest. I think he did, especially for the one mostly buried within the gum. Extracting that tooth was amazingly similar to the rest of them, though. I'm sure there were knives involved.
I hummed the end of Beethoven's 9th when the last one was being pulled out. "The grand finale", she said. I remembered that spy parody movie where the bad guy wants to blow up the Disney center in Los Angeles when the end of that symphony was reached. So yeah, E E F G G F E D C C D E E D D, E E F G G F E D C C D E D C C. I got in a few repeats, and it felt fitting. I really wanted to "honor" my teeth somehow.
Oh yeah, I hummed the Requiem as well for a while. I didn't remember most of it, though. Any one voice of the first movement sounded pretty plain, and I couldn't quite make a full part of it. That's when I decided to hum Ke$ha's.
A little gagging afterwards, a sheet of paper filled with instructions. No nuts, no crunchy stuff for a month. Very gentle teeth brushing, antibiotics every six hours, gauze change every hour. Oh yeah, gauze change!! BRB.
The back of my mouth feels gapingly empty (does that make sense?) The pieces of gauze are coming out with less blood each time, and I feel amaizngly little besides a dull aching where my teeth used to be.
Wisdom teeth. Did they give me wisdom? Or maybe the act of extracting them did? Or maybe it takes wisdom to remove them? "Thou shalt pull out thy corner teeth". I had been feeling a slight pressure on the gums, sometimes in the corners, after exerting myself even for a few minutes - e.g. running a mile at a pace just beyond my comfort zone (which has been getting notoriously narrower during the past few months and years, I've noticed). My mind blamed my corner teeth, so I managed to convince myself that my dentist's recommendations were acceptable. So out came the corner teeth. I just needed a plausible excuse.
So now I have three bunches of pills. Antibiotics, anti-pains, and other anti-pains I got at the pharmacy. Narco, I think? It does not honor its own name - after swallowing two of them, I feel even more alert that I usually do at this time (~1900). They might just start working if I stopped writing and just eased my head in a rested, supine position. I feel like writing, though.
What else? They told me to drink lots of water. Will do. It's not hard to acquire, and hydration feels good.
What else? They told to put ice on my face. Well, I had none, but my advanced chemical education has prepared me for this moment. In an astounding burst of DIY ingenuity, I filled up the two plastic bags that previously held the gauzes they gave me, put them in a pot in the freezer, and after an appropriate time, I shall magically own two cold bags filled with ice. One for each cheek. Now I just need to find a way to stick 'em to my face (I have no convenient adhesives).
What else? Water again, I guess. My lips do feel dry, and something has to replace the copious rivers of blood I lost today. If I like homeostasis, that is.
But yes, it was bloody and it was brutal. Amazingly painless, but I haven't gone through convalescence just yet, so...... let's see how the rest of the month comes along. I hope swimmingly.
