15 January 2010

Oh goody – extraction day today. The head dentist at the practice would be doing this for me.

As you have already seen, I am no stranger to this procedure. In fact, when I was a nipper, I had to have all of my milk teeth pulled out, because they were way too comfy where they were, and stayed put while my big teeth grew around them. This may have been where my problems started. In any case, my astonishing array of dinosaur teeth made me look like a little mutant, so obviously something had to be done. The dentist took the quick, to-the-point approach, rather than the care I am currently enjoying. I remember the injections, and the weird mouth feeling, and the crunch-crunch-crunch as the pesky little teeth were wrenched out. I remember spitting mouthfuls of blood out of the car window on the journey home. Happy days ...

Many, many years later, here I was again. I wasn't scared, but did feel a little flutter of concern as I lay down in the chair.

I had no need to worry – the dentist was a master of the extractive art. Like his orthodontist colleague, he very kindly explained each step of what he was doing. The injections in the mouth were not great, especially the one in the roof of my mouth, but they were bearable. Then there was a certain amount of pressure, and the feeling that part of my nose was being pulled out (have no fear – it wasn't), but no pain. Then, suddenly, it was done. It must have taken less than 20 minutes from start to finish. The dentist let me have the tooth as a gory little souvenir.

I felt a wee bit fragile travelling home in the rush hour, but I think that was just the after-effects of my own adrenaline. I also suspect I might have swallowed a tiny bit of anaesthetic, because my throat felt a bit weird on the way home – but again, that could just have been me coming down from the stress.

I couldn't eat anything for supper, but frankly that was the least of my concerns. There was almost no pain – just a bit of a dull ache, which was easily sorted out with ordinary painkillers.