The main event I wanted to record here is an operation of sorts I underwent two weeks ago. OK, no one needs to read it--& maybe no one will anyway. It's easiest to quote my journal.
I had something else to deal with, a condition I’d noticed apparently at least since the World Series, when I may have begun to suspect a jaw-clenching problem...
By the middle of November indications suggested a localized gum inflammation, if not something worse. Unsure whether this required dental attention, I methodically flossed & found it gradually improving. Then, on Finnish Independence Day, I lost a piece of filling. (This seemed to fit with a theme of recent days, that of stupidly breaking things by accident.) Phoning the good old dental office, I learned my guy was on vacation, but an associate would see me in what proved to be two days: first time I’d been to a female dentist. She took one look & told me the tooth in question wouldn’t support the filling because this molar had split down the middle--yikes! Expressing understandable surprise that it hadn’t afflicted me worse, she declared #14 beyond saving, & a matter for an oral surgeon. She did prescribe an antibiotic, though.
As my records there showed, I’d complained as early as last year about unexplained sensitivity (to cold at least) on that side...Meanwhile, in unrelated news, most of us pipers are off for the time being.
I’d been able to get in with an oral surgeon the next week on a colder but sunny Monday... The doctor performing this extraction evidently was junior enough that his name didn’t appear on the establishment’s stationery. Not wanting a repeat of what happened last time, I’d ruled out general anesthesia but asked for gas, & it had some effect. Gathered that if the molar wasn’t dead, it was as good as. He suggested that draining through the gumboil might have relieved symptoms. That the tooth wasn’t of the “wisdom” variety presumably rendered the operation simpler & short, but I won’t deny its abhorrent nature. Was surprised no stitches were required.
Next day I confirmed that I didn’t need the prescribed analgesic....