Friday was my company’s Christmas lunch at Frankie and Benny’s. We all left the office at around 11:30AM. I was already pissed off with my weekend having gone down to the drain so was not really feeling so festive. Besides, I do have that dentist appointment to make it worse…and it’s at 2:30PM.This means I may have to miss the whole lunch thing.

We got down to our tables and of course, like kids, we started popping the party poppers, streamers and crackers. By the time the starters came, we were all wearing our paper crowns!

Since we were a big group, it took a while before everyone was served their starters. It was 1:30PM when they have cleared out the table in preparation for the main courses. And of course, they didn’t serve the mains straight away. So, I had to go by 2:00PM so I could make my 2:30PM dentist appointment.

I got there on the dot. There was traffic on the way. I sat in silence while I wait for them to call me in. I switched off my mobile phone, too!

At 2:45PM, the dentist led me in to “The Chair”. He immediately went to check my teeth and gums and was indeed surprised that there were improvements since my first visit. He told me what he was about to do for this visit. His assistant was preparing the tools. I did explain to him that I was feeling a bit discomfort when drinking liquids – even water. He said that it was normal since my gums, especially, the one behind my front top tooth was really infected. In fact, it was the one that caused the swelling last week. He said that the infection might be deeper so he took and x-ray of that tooth.

I never thought that the x-ray would be done by simply placing a cardboard-like film on the tooth while they had this tubey-thingy, which took the x-ray image. I thought taking tooth x-ray was something bigger, in terms of equipment.

I excused myself to go to the loo before he puts me on local anaesthesia. Didn’t want to create a scene…if you know what I mean? :sly:

Dreading coming back to the chair, I walked the white-painted halls back to the room. I was already wearing my ‘bib’ and eye goggles. Sat back down and was instantly lowered in position. Dentist spreads a gel on my gums that tasted like bubblegum. I didn’t know if I could swallow the thing as I could feel something accumulating in my throat. I was told to rinse it out. My mouth felt a little numb afterwards.

And then it came, the injection for the anaesthesia. Surprisingly, it didn’t sting too much like last time. Maybe because there was no swelling. However, this time, he injected all around my mouth. Minutes later, I could not feel my mouth and lips. And it was difficult to talk.

He began to scrape the ‘dirt’ off my teeth. First on the upper set, front and back. When the scraper came near to the big front tooth, I felt something. He added more anaesthesia. When he got to the lower set, I felt the same pain on the left, but this time, he didn’t add more. Instead, he used a manual scraper and cleaned slowly. While doing the cleaning, I hear the dentist explaining to the assistant what has happened to me, in more medical terms. Of course, didn’t understand it all. Only thing that registered was “…so it’s past gingivitis.” “Yes.”

I felt I was sitting there for ages. I wasn’t even asked to rinse often, thanks to them suctions! But I think they realised it too, so they paused and gave me a moment to breathe. They were asking me questions but I could only move my head to respond as it was so difficult to talk.

Got back on it not sooner. When he was satisfied that he’d done quite an amount of cleaning and sensing my discomfort as well, he stopped. I rinsed for the final time. Difficult because my mouth was still numb! He told me to continue using the Corsodyl gel but this time, couple it with the mouthwash. They had some in stock so I just took one. Saves me from going into Boots.

I told him that I would need him to complete the claim form from Cigna so I could re-imburse the costs. He complied but would do it at the end of the treatments. He prepared the treatment plan and it would cost £225 all in all. This is broken down into:

• 4 x periodontal treatments, £50 each quadrant
• specialised assessment, £25

Went out to reception and paid for the treatment I had done only for that visit. That was £100, plus the mouthwash, which was £3 so a total of £103. I didn’t have the cash so I used my credit card. Got the receipt and booked my next appointment – Friday, 17th December, 11:30AM.

All in all, it wasn’t so bad. It took longer for the anaesthesia to faze out though. But that was probably because I had more than the last time. Well, until next episode!

Archives:
- Pilot Episode
- Teaser to Episode 2

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