Most people don’t, and that’s okay.

However….pain = bad.

Because I hadn’t spent enough time in medical facilities recently, I had to have a toothache.  And I don’t just mean, “hey my tooth hurts, let me go ahead and still eat this bagel and not care.”

No.

Not even a little bit.

It had been a little achey for about a week or so, but I knew it had a cavity that was scheduled to be filled on the 17th, so I just kind of dealt with it.  It wasn’t unmanageable or life-altering; just a little annoying.  But rub a little of that numbing toothache cream on it and I went about my life.

Over the weekend it did start hurting more when I ate.  So I emailed my dentist office to ask if we could move my appointment up to get it filled sooner.

Monday morning, though……dear god…..the pain….I can’t even describe it.

I took a sip of water with one of my vitamins and I literally could have punched a wall.  It felt like someone lit my nerve on fire.  And it wasn’t even cold water, it was cool water at most.  I almost started crying.

Then I did something somewhat stupid.  I brushed my teeth a little later and then rinsed with mouthwash.  And not just any mouthwash….Listerine…the stuff with a higher alcohol content than a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black.  I gripped the sink so tight I probably could have ripped the sink off the cabinet.

8:00am I called my dentist almost crying that I HAD to come in today, I was in too much pain.  I even took Exceddrin, a couple hours later took Motrin, rubbed the toothache stuff on and it STILL hurt. And yes, I know I overdid the meds a little….you would have too, if you felt that pain.  The air hurt; I couldn’t open my mouth.  It was horrible.

I finally got to my dentist.  I told her, “I don’t care what you have to do just please give me Novocaine, pleaseeeee”.  And I hate going to the dentist, I hate people doing things in my mouth; just getting a routine cleaning, I probably should be put to sleep.  It’s bad.  I’m so bad in the chair.  I don’t know why, I just am.  I’m having my wisdom teeth out in a couple weeks (which is a whole story in itself) and I have to go to an oral surgeon and go under general anesthesia for it.  I’m bad.

It was probably the least amount of fight I’ve ever put up in a dentist chair.  She did xrays and checked the area around it before she could finally numb it.  I jumped out of my chair twice prior to that because…pain.  She left gauze of Lidocaine on my teeth while she checked the xray and it was probably the best five minutes of my life so far that day.

She came back in and said, “Stephanie, we do need to do a root canal, your entire root is inflamed which is why you’re hurting so much.  I know you’ve never had a root canal, so this is what it is…”

I’m like, “don’t care, I appreciate the openness, but just do it…don’t care what you have to do.”

Then I got my BFF Novocaine.  A total of three shots…..because….like I said….pain.

I felt NOTHING after this.  It was GLORIOUS. Devon laughed at me a couple times that night as it was wearing off because my mouth muscles were so relaxed on side and my lips kept going opposite of each other when I talked.  It was probably kind of hilarious to see. But he was no longer allowed to look at me when I spoke after that for the rest of the evening.

Honestly, though, the whole procedure was maybe 20 minutes; no worse than getting a cavity filled, in my opinion.  Yeah, there were more sounds and drilling, but if you’re numb you probably don’t care.

She took another x-ray and gave me the good news that she got all the nerve out in the one session (she told me sometimes people need multiple sessions for these, thank bob I didn’t) and she was going to put in a temporary crown and that I’ll have to come back in two weeks for a permanent one.

This temporary crown feels weird, too, gotta be honest.  I mean, it’s SO nice to not hurt anymore; it’s a little sore from everything still, but not pain.  She offered a perscription strength pain-killer, which I refused.  If I could handle that pain Monday, a little soreness won’t bother me.  I’ve only taken regular Ibuprofen once since the procedure.  She did also give me antibiotic as a precaution.  She could see the inflammation starting to travel to other teeth, so she wanted to make sure there was no infections spreading anywhere.  I can live with taking meds for a week.

The main really annoying thing, which in the grand scheme of all this isn’t THAT bad…but after awhile is going to get old…is that…the temporary crown is on my dominant eating side.  I don’t know if I’m the only one that has one side of their mouth they usually chew on, but I do.  And that’s the side the crown is on.  And while I don’t have “restrictions” on what I can eat, I shouldn’t eat anything that can pull the temporary crown out.  So nothing really crunchy, sticky, chewy; basically mostly soft foods, and to chew on the other side, that I don’t really do.

And this has to happen for the next two weeks, until my permanent crown can be put on.

Then I can eat completely normally after a 24 hour period so that the crown fully sets.

Well…I can eat normally for about 24 hours….because then I’m having my wisdom teeth out…so it’ll be back to REALLY soft foods again for a couple days.

It’s a good thing I like pasta…..

But once my wisdom teeth are fully out?  I’m going NUTS with whatever the hell I want to eat and screw anything else; calories, fat content…don’t care.  I wanna chew my food, damnit! ON THE RIGHT SIDE!

But yeah…root canals.  I give them five stars….totes recommend them….you know…if you need them.  Don’t just do them for fun.  There’s lot of other torture you can do for fun…not this.