Mad Tooth!

Mad tooth

Never underestimate the power of the madness of a tooth. Thankfully we have come up in the world with regards to dental help. The days of bite the bullet have come and gone but there have been a few times it crossed my mind.  Some time ago I went to the dentist with hopes of a simple checkup and cleaning. A Thursday morning appointment seems easy. Right! By Friday noon ish and I am climbing the walls and ready to go eight rounds in the MMA cage with a wild critter with the craziness of pain. So, wouldn't ya know no one is in the dental office that I had the cleaning done in to help me with the after math of the killer madness in my mouth. My dear wife with her heart of gold does her best to find me a dentist with heart to help my case of trouble. Being in so much discomfort I considered resorting to pulling out my own tooth. Yep, the thought comes to some of us that have lots of tools around. Luckily, we found an office open, with time to spare me a bit of a looksee at the enraged chopper. Any one that has known me for some time, knows I don't find comfort in a chair for dental purposes.

 I would rather visit with a doctor or a dentist in the canyons or the woods than their office. Seated in the chair and looking out the window thinking about how this royally bites. Doc J as we will call him enters the small room. We get the howdies done and get to the let's have a look around. Some touch and probing and we can tell the general area and tooth. So just to be sure and clear Doc J does a somewhat simple and small test for clarifying the exact irritated spot. A super frosty Q-tip and Wow! I was a thrashing like a crazy soul a looking to exit the window. Mind ya me moving forward with that much effort would be like maybe a Bear after me kind a deal. By this time the Doc is like yep “we call that a hot tooth”. Hot or mad either way is fine kind of a mess to be in on a Friday afternoon. He is like we're not drilling in to that critter today. We will have to give it some antibiotics and pain relief for a few days to get it workable. Knowing how life goes for me with some substances I would cross my fingers with some 800 ibu and clove oil and hope for the best for the weekend. Anyone been mouth and tooth impaired knows ya get to the point of “I so much need a burger and fries” kind of hungry. Between pain and starvation, it really reminded me of having tonsils out in midlife. Yes, I had my tonsils out in my thirties. Soft foods do not do life justice by any means and if someone should be bold enough to try to tell you anything different they have obviously been living with too tight of jeans on. I was sure hoping for the Hulk to rock me to sleep or even Thor to tap me with his hammer upside the head so I could get a little shut eye. By the time Monday morning came I was thinking why it can’t be Tuesday already this is getting super old. But by Tuesday morning I was just wanting to sleep in, I was dragging around like a zombie. Wouldn't ya know I was thrilled to cheese on crackers at an ants family picinic to go to the dentist for once in decades. Mind ya I still would have been happy with seeing Doc J out in the back country and not with his pricey chair in his office. 

About this time, I am reminded of the John Wayne saying “courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyways”. I saddled up and found my way to the dental chair. Doc J worked magically and at a point in the process turned some of the task of the madness to his very skilled partner Doc B for the extreme curved rooting of the mad tooth. One of those super hard to get at curvy rooted monster teeth. There are moments that I haven’t feel super excited to be in that pricey chair but being numbed of the pain was relieving. Do not underestimate the driving force of pain to change the course of daily living in one form or another. The worst smells, feelings, and sounds have always been around the dentist or doctor cubicle for me and they aren't some fond memories either but I couldn't think of them at the time. Happy to have that pain to a livable point and knowing I still would have to return for a crown, I thought of ways to get out of sitting in that chair any time soon. I will tell you that I have had lots of pain filled times from road rash and burns to head smacks with hard objects.

 Some painful moments being a bit more emotional than physical. I recommend meeting people in more joyous ways than at painful rock bottom but should you be in a painful situation I hope you have good people that help you find relief. Hopefully those people that help you with your struggles have some super great friends and associates that are there to back them up. As much as some of the biggest tough guys would like you to think they don't fight battles with an army of prime picked gladiators they are more successful with some friends by their side or even behind them. Still not feeling super excited for visiting the dentist but should I find myself crawling walls in pain I hope that help is there with someone like Doc J.