Sorry I haven't written much lately. I've had a bad toothache. I went in this summer for a check-up. I didn't have any cavities, but I did need some repair work done on a tooth to try to prevent a future need for a root canal. It wasn't bothering me, so I didn't have the work done right away, plus I needed to save up the money for it since we don't have dental insurance.
I finally had that work done a couple weeks ago. Teeth are miserable things! My tooth didn't bother me before, but I sure was in a lot of pain after. Several days later, I returned to the dentist and he decided that the procedure had actually made things worse and I likely needed a root canal now. I wanted to go with the "wait and see" approach since I didn't have money for a root canal anyway, but he hated to see me in so much pain and said his partner would do the procedure for me and I could pay it off in installments.
Our check-ups this summer were the first visits we had made to a dentist here and when we went, half of us saw one partner and half saw the other. The other dentist is from Colombia, so we had Jon Felipe see him. He was so pleased that we had adopted JF and emphasized that a person with JF's physical struggles would have no future in Colombia. It was so amazing to us to find someone who grew up in Colombia working as a dentist here in northwest Iowa. How cool is that!
Anyway, this other dentist has only done a few root canals, although not on molars, which is what I needed done, but he was willing to do it for me. Amazingly he was even willing to do the procedure for free! So, I went to see him last week. The ache is getting better so we explored whether I really need a root canal or not. The decision: likely not. Yeah!
Apparently that particular tooth is hard to numb and so when they try to inject the Novocaine, they have to slide the needle between the muscle and the bone in the hinge of the jaw. Sometimes they pierce the muscle and, because the muscle is so thin in that spot, it causes a great deal of pain. Sometimes they also end up piercing the nerve. It appears that both occurred, which would explain why my jaw ached, why it was painful to try to open my mouth, and why it felt like my jaw had been paralyzed on that side. He also told me that it usually takes at least 6 weeks to repair itself.
So, I'm cancelling my root canal appointment and enjoying the fact that the pain is definitely receding. It is amazing to me how much being in pain like that can affect your ability to function. I felt like it was hard to even focus on a simple task. For my friends who deal with chronic pain, you are amazing! I am so grateful not to be facing that kind of pain any longer.
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