Sweet holy Moses

Two weeks after the initial dental visit, the patient returns in order to put the permanent crown onto the exposed tooth stump.

And this is what I had to do today. Of course, like a boxer who steels himself for the one two walloopa punch so that he doesn't end up kissing the canvas (or worse, end up dead), I have been steeling myself for the past two weeks for this procedure.

I knew going into this appointment that the doctor would not give me drugs, shots, gas, or any helpful hints regarding how to tolerate the intense pain I would feel once the temporary came off and the permanent was cemented onto the very sensitive stump. At least Selene got, "Do jumping jack." I got nothing...except for this...

(As Dr. S & M is cleaning the old glue off of the sensitive, exposed stump, I wince in pain)

"Is something a’ matter there?" he said annoyed.

So I mumbled through the mouth filled with tubular gauze (you know, the kind of gauze thingies that are stuffed up bloodied noses - a tiny tampon with no string), "Ah Huts" (translation: It hurts.).

"Well, yes, it will feel a little sensitive to the touch." And then he adds, "When we put the permanent tooth on, it will feel really cool at first. It will take a minute or three for the initial ZING to wear off."

Cool. As in a little cold. Kind of icy. That's the first time in my life I've heard someone equate "coolness" with "intense pain."

But what do I know; I'm just the poor sap who broke her tooth and had the fortunate misfortune of having Dr. S & M, a highly skilled dentist, fix it.

The great thing was that since I've been building it up in my mind for two weeks that this procedure would really, really hurt (and it did hurt - really, really bad), this time around, the procedure didn't hurt as badly as it did when I had another broken tooth fixed a few years back. Of course I had a C-section between the first broken tooth fixing incident and this one.

Although this time around I had the added pleasure of having him put the permanent on and off a few times for adjustment purposes. That was...real...fun...kind of...cool... He's lucky I didn't vomit.