I only had two visits at the dentist in my entire life. The first one was in 2005 when I had to undergo tooth filling and the second one was last Friday when I had my very first tooth extraction.
More than a year ago, I started complaining about the pain in my upper right molar tooth. (Well, one of them.) I planned to visit the dentist but I wasn’t able to really go there. So last Thursday evening, March 3rd, after having dinner my tooth ached much more terribly than the previous weeks. Because I only had a Paracetamol in my bag, I tried to lessen the pain by taking it after dinner. But the pain didn’t subside. I tried to sleep on it thinking that the next day, it will be fine. But I was awakened at around 5:30 in the morning by crazier pain. I tried to bear the pain and slept. But at around 6:30, I was again awakened by the pain and told myself I really had to do something about it. So I asked Ate Mina, my sister-in-law, if she had Mefenamic Acid. Luckily, she had. So I had coffee and bread and took the medicine. After a while the pain was gone. But the pain was too persistent that the medicine’s effect didn’t last that long. So I was told that I should be taken to the dentist because the pain was just getting from bad to worse.
So we went to Abesamis Dental Clinic for a tooth filling. That was the original plan. I just wanted to have a tooth filling. But when the dentist checked my tooth, she said it couldn’t be saved any more and it was either to pull my tooth out and pay Php500 or I would have to spend like PhP12,000 for a tooth canal. There’s no way I was going to spend that much for a tooth. So I said I would go for the tooth extraction. So I asked her things like, “Is it painful? Is it gonna take very long?” But as she had told me, I would not feel the pain, just some force because of the anaesthesia. So she injected some into my gums and palate and started the whole process.
I instantly felt the effect of the anaesthesia. Even my body felt numb and I felt kinda weak. My mouth felt so weird like my palate was too thick. Then the dentist started her thing. I thought she was like trying hard to pull it. Maybe it took her a good 5 minutes to finish. Before my tooth was completely pulled out, I heard crunching sounds twice. Then a super comfortable feeling followed after the tooth was pulled out.
It was a whole new experience for me. I was even scared of it but I realized, “Kaya ko naman pala, eh.” But the thing is, there were a lot of things that I had to do and NOT to do after. I had a gauze in my mouth to stop the bleeding. I only ate Goldilocks Chiffon Cake and cold noodles and chewed on my left that night. I was told I couldn’t carry any heavy things and I couldn’t do any work. And I wasn’t allowed to smoke for the next 12 hours. That’s fine, anyway, I could bear that. But the food!
The next day, I didn’t need any gauze, but still couldn’t carry heavy things. I was able to brush the other teeth without touching the gum where the tooth was extracted. I could eat rice again but I still tried to chew on my left. I just kept taking medicine, even now.
Lesson learned: Take care of our teeth. If we felt like there’s something wrong with it, we should do something about it soon. So it won’t end up getting worse and ugly.
