MISSING PARTS

A part of me was removed the other day.

Sounds a bit alarming, but actually it was just a tooth. Not the greatest event I've ever looked forward to, but necessary. During my last cycle trip in December I was crawling the walls of my tent in the evening, such was the pain. Amazing something so small can cause so much pain.

The following day I was exhausted having had little sleep, and it was all I could do to complete a short cycle then speed into the nearby town of Callander for a pharmacy and pain relief.

On return to Edinburgh, and an emergency appointment with the dentist, I was given two options:

1/ lengthy, and expensive, root canal work.

2/ Extraction

The tooth felt slightly wobbly, and during this dentist visit she applied a dressing that killed off the nerve, so it felt decidedly comfortable. But it was clear that doing a root canal procedure was not guaranteed to work, mainly due to the difficulty of it being the last molar right at the back, as access was tricky. If it didn't work, then it would be extracted anyway. Losing a tooth is not a decision taken lightly, but with the prospect of spending £600 with no guarantee . . . 

But Christmas was just around the corner, so I decided to limp on and see if I could make it through the festive season pain free, and thus enjoy all it had to give. Which is exactly what happened.

And so, 48 hours ago, out it came.

I had a wisdom tooth removed about 30 years ago, under a sedative, which only helped a little bit. It was a traumatic procedure, and the bleeding took hours to stop. So you can imagine in the days leading up to the extraction I was very anxious, to put it mildly. I kept imagining that she would be stood on my chest bracing herself, with pliers attached to my tooth, rocking back and forth!

On the day, my anxiety was even higher, despite keeping busy and distracting myself all morning. Sitting in the dentist chair, out came the needle. Why is that thing so damn painful?! It's extremely thin, so you'd think it would be OK. Three injections later and I was not in the best of moods. Then I had to sit in the waiting room for another 15 minutes, while the anaesthetic took effect.

Then it was extraction time!

Jeez!

Open wide . . .

And in went what I can only describe as medieval torture implements!

Incredibly, in around 15 seconds, it was all over! A bit of shoving but no pain! All that worry for nothing!

If this is happening to you anytime soon, I hope my little story helps.

The dentist wouldn't give me the tooth, so I never got to put it under my pillow for the Tooth Fairy!

Bummer.