bobgarlitz

Yep. Some sort of personal record, if not “personal best.” Lucky to see a dentist yesterday morning and doubly lucky to find an Endodontist an hour away in Concord who could see me at 4:30 that afternoon. Almost freezing rain on the highway but not quite. He gave me what felt like sixteen shots of novocaine and did root canal surgery, his specialty. This morning all was not as well in my right lower jaw as we had all hoped, especially me. Took more Advil. His receptionist called about 10:30 to see how I was doing. Still sensitive to heat and cold. Not good. Another drive to Concord this afternoon. We did more tests with the hot stick and the cold stick. Hmmm. Probably did the root canal yesterday on the wrong tooth. But not “wrong” really since the x ray shows it did have a problem called “resorption,” so it was “good” to have stripped it of all of its rotting nerve endings after all. Another root canal job today. Tooth right next door. More awful novocaine shots–somehow the needle going into the jaw muscle always felt like an electric razor blade. But maybe I had just read too much Elfriede Jelinek last week? Anyway the root canal job I can now report is not all that bad an experience. Much better than conventional press for the term itself would have you believe. Remarkably fast, less than an hour, and once the novocaine kicks in full force, you don’t feel a thing. Two more cheers for novocaine. Last night when it wore off I felt all the pains of the past week. Tonight it is close to have worn off fully and so far none of the old familiar shots in the jaw. Good sign. Maybe we got the right tooth today. Surely wine and turkey and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie tomorrow will give the whole system a good test run. The young dentist did not specifically clarify whether I would be billed for two root canals or one. Nor did I ask. He is off to New York for a week, the annual Endodontics Convention.