My Poor Tooth

"Can you feel the pressure?" asked Martin.

"Yes." Of course, by then it was hard to speak. I always feel a bit like the Luna Park face at this point.

"Is the area numb?"

"Yes." I couldn't, in fact, feel the entire right side of my face. It was even a little numb down the right hand side of my throat, which was a little disconcerting.

"No pain?"

"No, no pain." I could feel the pliers (I couldn't see them, of course, so this is an assumption) gripping and ungripping on my tooth as he got the best grip, but I couldn't feel it as pain. There was a sensation of something hard and metallic on my hard tooth. Hard and cold on hard and cold.

"Good," said Martin.

There was no pain, it is true, but the feeling of something moving in my gum was weird, as Martin took hold of the tooth. 

Then, I could feel the sensation of tearing and ripping, the tearing of tissue, the pulling of my jaw, my flesh and the breaking root... was apparent, even if I couldn't feel it as pain, as such. That's the creepy bit, it made me squirm in the chair.

Martin pulled his hand away and I knew it was done. My tooth and I had been parted, for the first time in...

"You made the right decision," he said. "There's the abscess... right under the roots."

He was putting things in my mouth, but that was apparent more by sensing it than feeling it. I could vaguely taste the acid flavour of blood on my tongue, before Martin pushed a wad of gauze into my mouth and the acidic taste was gone.

All done. No pain. I guessed it would probably hurt when the anaesthetic wore off. It doesn't hurt yet, although the area is coming into focus more and more.

I so wanted coffee when I got home, but the instructions said it was best to avoid hot food, initially. So, I'm eating bananas. I bought a coffee scroll, but it just wasn't the same thing, not even a good substitute, actually.

Sam comes over after work and even though Martin said none of this, making gestures of pushing and pulling his hand in and out of his mouth, we do. Big smile.