Episode 191 : Dial D for Dentist - Part 2

That wasn't the first trick he played on me.

After removing the wiring that kept my jaws together, we had begun working on stretching my cheek muscles. I told him I could only open my mouth enough to put a spoon inside, and that too an empty one.

'Well, we have a rubber plug that we use to stretch cheek muscles. Just open your mouth and push it in as much as you can.'

I tried for a few minutes and put one end in by half an inch. He took one look at my progress, told me to open my mouth and jammed the damned thing in.

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

'I will be back after fifteen minutes' he said and calmly left.

I thought of all foul-mouthed words I wanted to say but could say not one of them. I waited impatiently for fifteen minutes. The seconds needle ticked slowly, I could have sworn each second in that clock was actually two!

He came in twenty agonising minutes later.

My eyes must have shown my happiness.

'I will be back after another fifteen minutes.'

I almost screamed my lungs out.

Back to the root canal treatment...

I had gotten used to the tooth being scraped but when the dentist began poking in the root area, I begn to get restless. Screaming would have frightened them.

In hindsight, I should have yelled like Tarzan!

I first gripped the handrest to distract myself but gave up and began clenching my fists. After clenching and unclenching, the pain in my palms overrode the pain in my gums.

That's when I heard the dentist exclaim 'There's a shard in here!'

The surgeon got up and examined the tooth that had broken all the way to the root.

'Wha?' I asked, feeling dumb not being able to speak whole words.

'Oh nothing, you have a shard stuck in your gumline. We'll take it out now' the surgeon replied. Before I could gather my wits, he returned with an implement and yanked the offending bit of tooth out.

I was too shocked to react.

'See, it was nothing at all' he said nonchalantly.

I began to feel a needle poke around in my gums, and then something getting screwed in. Or maybe the anaesthesia was causing me to imagine things. I knew I wasn't getting a titanium implant. I was past caring- they could do what they wanted to do.

One tooth down, two more to go.

Two teeth down, one more to go.

Three teeth down, and I was ready to go.

What made all of that worthwhile were his parting words that night.

'For dinner have something cold. Nothing solid or warm. Stick to ice-cream without nuts. Just plain ice-cream, any flavour.'

Episode 190 : Dial D for Dentist - Part 1

A few weeks after getting discharged from the hospital, I visited my dentist, actually a maxillofacial surgeon, for post-hospitalisation treatment- check progress on the healing, remove the wiring, and the root canal treatments.

Once he was satisfied with the progress, he announced he would remove the wiring between the jaws and replace them with rubber bands. After spraying anasthesia around my gums, he cut the wires and pulled them out.

For a moment I thought my lower jaw would just come apart!

'Spit' he commanded and thrust a bowl at me. Not understanding why, I obeyed.

I saw blood in the bowl. The metal wasn't wired through my teeth but my gums...

Once the upper and lower jaws were de-wired, he gave me a packet of rubber bands. Not very elastic, but strong enough to withstand the stretching movements of a human mouth.

'Hook the two braces using these rubber bands so that the bands criss-cross. You can now try having semi-solid food. Just don't wear them when you are having food. Practise opening and closing your mouth with these bands on. They will make sure you don't break your jaw again while stretching your cheek muscles!'

Some consolation!

'And don't give it to your girl friends!' he warned, 'Unless they want to lose their hair in a jiffy. These are not your regular rubber bands; they will cut through hair.'

I rolled my eyes. Like I have girl friends!

I fixed my next appointment with him. Apparently I required root canal treatment on all broken teeth. That meant three in a row, same day.

He assured me it would be painless. Yeah right, I thought to myself.

The big day arrived. I entered the clinic filled with apprehension.

The dentist was waiting for me, while my surgeon explained the process to me. As I sat nervously in the chair, he suggested I relax.

'If you feel pain, just raise your left hand.'

A few minutes later, the dentist began. Once the drilling started, I raised my left hand.

My surgeon was sitting a few feet from me, looking on. Without batting an eyelid he said 'Just because you raised your left hand doesn't mean we will stop.'

I knew right then, that there is more to come.

Episode 189 : Namma ooru Bay Area

I read the following comment at a blog when it got me thinking...

"If you are ever in the Bay area, give me a shout. Would love to meet you over coffee at Saravana Bhavan or Woodlands."

Now does the author mean the Bay area in the United States of America, or... the Bay area in Madras where the nearest Saravana Bhavan/Woodlands is just a downtown drive away?

Having recently returned from a road trip to the "island down under" also known as Dhanushkodi, the only Bay I know is the Bay of Bengal.