Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Open Up And Say "Aaaargh!"

So, last night I was eating some Jordan almonds. You know, the kind with the candy coating. They were exceedingly nummy, and I was crunching happily away on them, when something vaguely funny-feeling happened in my mouth, and suddenly the crunchy texture changed slightly. Upon further investigation, and much to my dismay, this turned out to be because I was now eating part of a tooth. Seriously, the corner of one of my molars is just gone. I appear to have swallowed it. Stupid goddamned almonds.

The good news is, the tooth doesn't actually hurt. So yay for a lack of exposed nerves. But, man, is it making me nervous. There's a filling in there, which I believe I can now see from the side. (It's the same color as the tooth, though, so it's hard to be sure.) It's a little disconcerting.

So, being the rational, responsible adult I am, I called my dentist first thing this morning to make a semi-emergency appointment. Unfortunately, the soonest they could get me in was 9:45 tomorrow morning. I told them to go ahead and book me, because although I am scheduled to work tomorrow morning, there are a couple of people who ought to be able to cover for me. (In fact, it's one guy's specific job this week to cover other people's shifts if necessary.)

Then, of course, I found that that both of said people have their own important commitments tomorrow morning. And, naturally, the third person who also ought to be able to take over in a pinch just left on vacation. So now everybody's trying to juggle things so I can go and get my damned tooth crowned, or whatever it's going to need to turn it into a whole tooth again. And I'm wondering whether I should try to reschedule the appointment, but, man, I just have these visions of leaving it too long and suddenly biting down on it wrong, losing another bit of tooth or even the filling, and having a genuine rush-to-the-dentist-right-now emergency. Which would do nobody any good. (And, geez, this is what it's like now when we're supposed to have enough people to cover any such emergencies. What's going to happen come July when we're going to be down a person after one of my co-workers transfers to a different position, I shudder to think.)

Man, the whole thing is a massive pain in the neck. And on top of it all, I also have a literal pain in the neck, probably from the giant-ass cat trying to sleep on top of my head this morning.

Can I just start this week over? Pretty please?

[ETA: Whoo-hoo! Dentist just called! They can get me in this afternoon, after all! I like it when my life turns out to be slightly less annoying than anticipated.]

11 comments:

  1. Good luck at the dentist!

    In recent years, quite a few times I've found myself biting on something hard, and discovered that it was a bit of a tooth. Often it's happened without the food that I was eating being anything more than chewy. The tooth never seems to hurt afterwards, and I've now become blasé about it and don't even bother to bring forwards my next dental check-up.

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  2. It's been brought to my attention several times recently that the American stereotype about the British and their disregard for dentistry is indeed based in actual fact. But it never ceases to surprise and amuse me. ;)

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  3. :)

    In my defence, the bits that have broken off all seem to have been from molars well back in the mouth, and so the damage isn't visible to anyone looking at me.

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  4. I hope that the trip to the dentist has gone well.

    I've also had that experience of finding myself eating tooth, and it's now my automatic fear, if I find an unexpected crunchy bit in my food. Brrrr.

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  5. JH: Visibility to other people has never been my prime concern. :)

    Paul: Coulda been better, but I suppose it also could have been worse.

    And it is an unnerving experience, isn't it?

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  6. I skipped going to the dentist for several years. I'm not exactly proud of this -- and I did continue to brush and floss -- but I do think it's interesting that only after I started going again did I have a tooth crack and need a crown put on it.

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  7. My own prime concern is a terror of the dentist's. :) I think I do pretty well to nerve myself to go for a regular six monthly check-up.

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  8. But you're too young to have false teeth (or even part of a tooth)!

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  9. I hated, hated, hated the dentist as a kid. As an adult, well, I still dislike it a hell of a lot, but I figure it's one of those things you have to do.

    Captain C: I already have one almost completely fake tooth, and a bunch of fillings. I like to pretend this makes me a cyborg, but I'm sadly not fooling myself. :)

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  10. Oh, and...
    And it is an unnerving experience, isn't it?
    Not as much as a root canal would be. /rimshot/

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