I swear to tell the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth
Monday evening: Cross because I had bad toothache, my wisdom teeth were hurting more than they had ever before.
Tuesday morning, 4am: As the pain awoke me I swore to go to the Dentist in the morning and even set my alarm so that I wouldn't forget. I drifted back to sleep about 5 after my concoction of Bonjela, Corsodyl gel, ibruprofen and antiseptic & Anasthetic throat spray sprayed onto my gum started to work.
Tuesday Morning 7.30am: No chance of forgetting, the pain woke me up as the concoction created a mere 2 and a half hours earlier wore off.
I then waited until 9 and phoned the Dentist, at least I was registered...only they couldn't find my details. Eventually I was asked if I paid for my dental care. I explained I used to have a form that entitled me to reduced dental care but I'd lost it in the move (after looking frantically for it at 4 am). The woman on the end of the phone sympathetically told me in that case I'd have to pay, and it was £25 for an examination (implying it would be more for anything that needed to be done) "I can't afford that" I said incredulously (having previously explained I'm just fresh faced out of uni with a fresh pile of debt to compliment me) "I'm sorry, company policy" the woman said "Ok, I sobbed", she then proceeded to give me another number that 'might be of some help'; on enquiring what it was she was giving me I was told it was another dental practice in Kings Norton. How the fuck was I supposed to get there.
I cried.
I was all alone in a house, with terrible toothache that hurt to do anything, even cry. It hurt when I wasn't doing anything and hurt twice as bad when I was. I wanted my mum, or someone, anyone. And I couldn't afford to go and get my teeth looked at. I felt terrible 'this' I thought 'is what moving away from home really means'. Solitary confinement when one needs it least.
I tried to eat and failed, the pain was too much. I mustered up some spirit that lay within me and told myself to stop being silly. I was going to sort this out. I had to. I phoned the helpline number for Help with NHS costs and explained my situation to the woman on the end of the phone who sounded much more sympathetic than the receptionist in the surgery had to my plight. She explained if I paid for the treatment but attached the receipt to the claim form I would most likely get it back (I really hope I do). She said she'd send me a form in the post.
I then rang back the dentists, and explained all that to them, they were more than happy to accommodate me then. Appointment booked for half eleven.
Half eleven saw me enter the surgery nervously. I don't like Dentists, I've never had a bad experience, infact, back Home we had a very good dentist who always told me that I had near perfect teeth when I was little. I never needed a brace. I've only had a couple of fillings and they were hardly traumatic. I just don't like people poking around in my mouth, especially some new dentist I don't know. I had to fill in more forms that I had done when I registered, I assume to replace the ones they'd lost. Then I was called up to see the Dentist.
He was very nice, charming, Pressing 2, yes, not one, but two, business cards into my hand as I entered. He asked what he could do for me and I explained. Then he reassured me by telling me that I was in good hands (I wasn't in anyone's hands as far as I was aware) and that he was a specialist with over 20 years experience, although he didn't look that old.
He had a look and then he told me that my jaw had stopped growing, that there wasn't room for my teeth (the wisdom's not all of them!!) and that they would have to be removed. 'Ok' I thought, remembering my father's words from earlier when I spoke to him; 'they won't do that today, they'll just give me a painkiller'. He then examined my teeth in general and I'm pleased to say that they were very good (especially considering I've not been to a dentist in at least 4 years). He then told me I would be a perfect candidate for tooth whitening and had I ever thought about it?
No! Idiot.
Who goes around thinking about tooth whitening? No doubt I have now inadvertantly managed to offend half the nation who go around thinking of nothing but tooth whitening, and no doubt they will try to sue me for trauma or something equally as ridiculous- ah well, maybe I can give Gilly some work there.
Then he told me he would see me later and sent me back down to the waiting room.
I waited. Then a woman, who sounded suspiciously like the non sympathetic woman on the phone the first time, came and sat down with an estimation of how much everything was going to cost me. She tried to get me to join a SMILE plan. What is so smiley about it I don't know, you still spend the same, but over a period of months. So instead of being broke now, you can be slightly broke over a few months. No difference to me.
I explained I'd sent off for this HC whatsit form and I would just pay the balance outright. Which I did.
Go on, for a laugh, guess. Guess how much an examination, x-ray, polish and de-scale (I sound like a washing machine) and one tooth to be removed cost me.
No
Not even close.
Oh come on, you must be joking.
No, it cost me a total of £130.00. Yes. I know. What has our National Health service come to, when we have to charge those who have £13,000 of debt and who are £1,000 into their £1,500 overdraft that much just to be rid of pain?
Shocking.
Well I paid. I had x-rays, and I thought that was it, but then the nurse told me that no, he was going to take my tooth out today. Now.
I had not mentally prepared for this, and so I cried. I was in the waiting room. I maintain it was shock, or hormones, or possibly both.
Then she took me back upstairs, with the receptionist calling up behind me, 'Don't worry, DR. Fickert is very good at taking out wisdom teeth, he took 2 of mine out and I hardly felt a thing'
The word I remembered from that throughout the proceedure was 'hardly'.
What did that mean? A bit? A lot? Enough to wince? Enough to cry? One tweak?
Firts I had two injections in my mouth, one in my gum, one in the roof. I swallowed some of the anaesthetic by mistake and made a funny noise, something akin to 'eugggh'. That may explain why I've been feeling sick, but I doubt it somehow. No room for sueing there.
I don't like needles, so I cried...and embarrassingly my leg started to uncontrollably shake...I have no idea why, but the nurses kept giving it strange looks. At one point the other one did it, but then my body clearly decided that the left leg was a better mover than the right and promptly switched back. That has never happened before, although sometimes, if I have a panic attack I shake, and stutter, so maybe that has something to do with it. But all throughout it shook. I wondered if it would come off, but it didn't.
When it went numb it was weird, I could feel the pressure applied to the gum, but no pain. Very odd sensation. And God (and the nurses) only know what he did, I certainly don't because I kept my eyes tightly shut throughout, and believe me, if I could have closed my ears off to the splintering sound of the tooth finally breaking and giving way I would have, because that, psychologically, made it 10 times worse. But that was it. Over in 3 minutes (£60 for 3 minutes!! Not even prostitutes who are destitute charge that).
I sat up and realised I was shaking, the whole of me, I also realised I'd been sobbing throughout the proceedure when the Dentist said in an amused tone 'you've got tears in your ears', if he thought it would make me laugh, he was wrong. He even wiped them out for me, what a nice man.
He then made me sit on a chair until I'd stopped shaking. I was biting down hard on the gauze strip they had inserted into my mouth in place of my tooth. He told me cheerfully to make an appointment for 2 weeks time when another would be taken. And I went downstairs.
I sat in the waiting room, biting my gauze, just incase it decided to shift. The receptionist greeted me with 'how was it?' just like you would to someone returning from holiday. 'Oh the chair was very comfy, the service excellent and the temperature, well would you believe it...' Instead I merely spluttered (the guaze does not take into consideration the function of talking) 'ok, yow were wight, I didwnt fweel a thwing' She smiled and I attempted a smile back, but due to numbing and gauze it probably better resembled a bloody grimace.
They then tried to get me to book and pay a deposit (again with the trying to make it into a holiday) on 2 weeks time, I told them I had forgotten my diary and would phone. It's now Thursday, I still haven't phoned!
I cried all the way home behind my sunglasses, and I have cried several times since. I sort of miss the tooth, there is a gaping hole that feels funny. But at the same time, my mouth feels better without it, less crowded, bigger somehow.
When mike saw my swollen face the words 'David Coulthard' passed his lips, my fist also nearly did. Swollen and sore, and still slightly numb hours later. It is now days later and although yesterday it was still swollen, and is slightly, ever so slightly but not noticeably today, it is reassuring that it is healing. What is not reassuring is that the pain is still very bad. But then the BUPA website said that it may be so up to a week. Oh and I'm to do no rigorous physical exercise (this is Me we're talking about) as it raises your blood pressure which can burst the blood clot over the wound and make you bleed eternally. Well ok, not eternally, but lots.
All this reminds me, it's surely time to get drugged up again...bring on the pills.
Tuesday morning, 4am: As the pain awoke me I swore to go to the Dentist in the morning and even set my alarm so that I wouldn't forget. I drifted back to sleep about 5 after my concoction of Bonjela, Corsodyl gel, ibruprofen and antiseptic & Anasthetic throat spray sprayed onto my gum started to work.
Tuesday Morning 7.30am: No chance of forgetting, the pain woke me up as the concoction created a mere 2 and a half hours earlier wore off.
I then waited until 9 and phoned the Dentist, at least I was registered...only they couldn't find my details. Eventually I was asked if I paid for my dental care. I explained I used to have a form that entitled me to reduced dental care but I'd lost it in the move (after looking frantically for it at 4 am). The woman on the end of the phone sympathetically told me in that case I'd have to pay, and it was £25 for an examination (implying it would be more for anything that needed to be done) "I can't afford that" I said incredulously (having previously explained I'm just fresh faced out of uni with a fresh pile of debt to compliment me) "I'm sorry, company policy" the woman said "Ok, I sobbed", she then proceeded to give me another number that 'might be of some help'; on enquiring what it was she was giving me I was told it was another dental practice in Kings Norton. How the fuck was I supposed to get there.
I cried.
I was all alone in a house, with terrible toothache that hurt to do anything, even cry. It hurt when I wasn't doing anything and hurt twice as bad when I was. I wanted my mum, or someone, anyone. And I couldn't afford to go and get my teeth looked at. I felt terrible 'this' I thought 'is what moving away from home really means'. Solitary confinement when one needs it least.
I tried to eat and failed, the pain was too much. I mustered up some spirit that lay within me and told myself to stop being silly. I was going to sort this out. I had to. I phoned the helpline number for Help with NHS costs and explained my situation to the woman on the end of the phone who sounded much more sympathetic than the receptionist in the surgery had to my plight. She explained if I paid for the treatment but attached the receipt to the claim form I would most likely get it back (I really hope I do). She said she'd send me a form in the post.
I then rang back the dentists, and explained all that to them, they were more than happy to accommodate me then. Appointment booked for half eleven.
Half eleven saw me enter the surgery nervously. I don't like Dentists, I've never had a bad experience, infact, back Home we had a very good dentist who always told me that I had near perfect teeth when I was little. I never needed a brace. I've only had a couple of fillings and they were hardly traumatic. I just don't like people poking around in my mouth, especially some new dentist I don't know. I had to fill in more forms that I had done when I registered, I assume to replace the ones they'd lost. Then I was called up to see the Dentist.
He was very nice, charming, Pressing 2, yes, not one, but two, business cards into my hand as I entered. He asked what he could do for me and I explained. Then he reassured me by telling me that I was in good hands (I wasn't in anyone's hands as far as I was aware) and that he was a specialist with over 20 years experience, although he didn't look that old.
He had a look and then he told me that my jaw had stopped growing, that there wasn't room for my teeth (the wisdom's not all of them!!) and that they would have to be removed. 'Ok' I thought, remembering my father's words from earlier when I spoke to him; 'they won't do that today, they'll just give me a painkiller'. He then examined my teeth in general and I'm pleased to say that they were very good (especially considering I've not been to a dentist in at least 4 years). He then told me I would be a perfect candidate for tooth whitening and had I ever thought about it?
No! Idiot.
Who goes around thinking about tooth whitening? No doubt I have now inadvertantly managed to offend half the nation who go around thinking of nothing but tooth whitening, and no doubt they will try to sue me for trauma or something equally as ridiculous- ah well, maybe I can give Gilly some work there.
Then he told me he would see me later and sent me back down to the waiting room.
I waited. Then a woman, who sounded suspiciously like the non sympathetic woman on the phone the first time, came and sat down with an estimation of how much everything was going to cost me. She tried to get me to join a SMILE plan. What is so smiley about it I don't know, you still spend the same, but over a period of months. So instead of being broke now, you can be slightly broke over a few months. No difference to me.
I explained I'd sent off for this HC whatsit form and I would just pay the balance outright. Which I did.
Go on, for a laugh, guess. Guess how much an examination, x-ray, polish and de-scale (I sound like a washing machine) and one tooth to be removed cost me.
No
Not even close.
Oh come on, you must be joking.
No, it cost me a total of £130.00. Yes. I know. What has our National Health service come to, when we have to charge those who have £13,000 of debt and who are £1,000 into their £1,500 overdraft that much just to be rid of pain?
Shocking.
Well I paid. I had x-rays, and I thought that was it, but then the nurse told me that no, he was going to take my tooth out today. Now.
I had not mentally prepared for this, and so I cried. I was in the waiting room. I maintain it was shock, or hormones, or possibly both.
Then she took me back upstairs, with the receptionist calling up behind me, 'Don't worry, DR. Fickert is very good at taking out wisdom teeth, he took 2 of mine out and I hardly felt a thing'
The word I remembered from that throughout the proceedure was 'hardly'.
What did that mean? A bit? A lot? Enough to wince? Enough to cry? One tweak?
Firts I had two injections in my mouth, one in my gum, one in the roof. I swallowed some of the anaesthetic by mistake and made a funny noise, something akin to 'eugggh'. That may explain why I've been feeling sick, but I doubt it somehow. No room for sueing there.
I don't like needles, so I cried...and embarrassingly my leg started to uncontrollably shake...I have no idea why, but the nurses kept giving it strange looks. At one point the other one did it, but then my body clearly decided that the left leg was a better mover than the right and promptly switched back. That has never happened before, although sometimes, if I have a panic attack I shake, and stutter, so maybe that has something to do with it. But all throughout it shook. I wondered if it would come off, but it didn't.
When it went numb it was weird, I could feel the pressure applied to the gum, but no pain. Very odd sensation. And God (and the nurses) only know what he did, I certainly don't because I kept my eyes tightly shut throughout, and believe me, if I could have closed my ears off to the splintering sound of the tooth finally breaking and giving way I would have, because that, psychologically, made it 10 times worse. But that was it. Over in 3 minutes (£60 for 3 minutes!! Not even prostitutes who are destitute charge that).
I sat up and realised I was shaking, the whole of me, I also realised I'd been sobbing throughout the proceedure when the Dentist said in an amused tone 'you've got tears in your ears', if he thought it would make me laugh, he was wrong. He even wiped them out for me, what a nice man.
He then made me sit on a chair until I'd stopped shaking. I was biting down hard on the gauze strip they had inserted into my mouth in place of my tooth. He told me cheerfully to make an appointment for 2 weeks time when another would be taken. And I went downstairs.
I sat in the waiting room, biting my gauze, just incase it decided to shift. The receptionist greeted me with 'how was it?' just like you would to someone returning from holiday. 'Oh the chair was very comfy, the service excellent and the temperature, well would you believe it...' Instead I merely spluttered (the guaze does not take into consideration the function of talking) 'ok, yow were wight, I didwnt fweel a thwing' She smiled and I attempted a smile back, but due to numbing and gauze it probably better resembled a bloody grimace.
They then tried to get me to book and pay a deposit (again with the trying to make it into a holiday) on 2 weeks time, I told them I had forgotten my diary and would phone. It's now Thursday, I still haven't phoned!
I cried all the way home behind my sunglasses, and I have cried several times since. I sort of miss the tooth, there is a gaping hole that feels funny. But at the same time, my mouth feels better without it, less crowded, bigger somehow.
When mike saw my swollen face the words 'David Coulthard' passed his lips, my fist also nearly did. Swollen and sore, and still slightly numb hours later. It is now days later and although yesterday it was still swollen, and is slightly, ever so slightly but not noticeably today, it is reassuring that it is healing. What is not reassuring is that the pain is still very bad. But then the BUPA website said that it may be so up to a week. Oh and I'm to do no rigorous physical exercise (this is Me we're talking about) as it raises your blood pressure which can burst the blood clot over the wound and make you bleed eternally. Well ok, not eternally, but lots.
All this reminds me, it's surely time to get drugged up again...bring on the pills.
posted by Culinali at 11:34 pm
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