I’ve just had a tooth treated, and I’ll briefly describe the process. If you don’t want to read it, don’t.
At first they didn’t even inject me with an anesthetic, because the condition of the tooth was unknown. During the deep drilling, they reached the exposed nerve, and I practically had tears shoot from my eyes (a physiological reaction). Then the dentist suggested extracting the tooth, explaining that it was too far back (tooth no. 8), and therefore removing the nerve was not possible. In any case, the tooth would become brittle afterwards, and extracting it would be very difficult.
What followed was so much fun that words cannot describe it. The tooth refused to come out, and the dentist was not a surgeon. Accordingly, she was not used to this sort of thing, so her arm was tired after just 5 minutes of effort. But she bravely rocked it back and forth until the bitter end, for which I’m grateful to her. She was very worried, while I reassured her that I could bear it. I’m not at all afraid of dental procedures, so the only thing getting in the way was the pain, not fear or any other negative emotions. To take my mind off the pain, I use a programmer’s meditative practice—I successively raise 2 to a power. That is, 2*2=4, 4*2=8, 8*2=16. This way I can multiply mentally up to 2^24=16777216, but not while I’m having a tooth extracted.
In the end, the tooth was defeated (in about 10 minutes), I was prescribed antibiotics and analgesics, and now I’ll be out of commission for several days. Concreting the foundation of the bathhouse was planned for today and tomorrow, but now that’s out the window, as is the sports club.
Tooth
2006-10-14