Third time lucky??????

So.... the tooth needed to be attended to....
Let me check if I have a good dental plan....
It seems like I have a decent dental plan... so find a dentist in the area....
Dr.Moon, well if he is going to make me dance using his fingertips (albeit with a drill in hand), I might as well not make any fun of his name....or else....
In any case I never had a bad expeience with a dentist.... so i am hoping that what people say about dentists doesnt come true...

First Visit......

Dent:Where are you from? Whats your ethnicity?????

Me (wondering if I didn't look Indian) India......

Ahhhhhhhh.... you eat a lot of spices.... Do you eat spicy food...

Me (not knowing what to answer): I would not eat them from today if you don't want me to....

No no no... these spices make your teeth acidic.... thats why you have these stains.... I will give you a light cleaning first.

Me (thinking in my mind) Dude.... cleaning can wait.... get me out of the pain....
Me: Ok... as you wish.....

after some moments of buzzing drill and constant repositioning of my head.... cleaning was done....

Dent: Whats the problem now
Me: (thanking God) I have this toothache and I do not want to be in pain anymore....

Dent: lemme take some x-rays....

that guy took x-rays of every possible angle of all my teeth......

all this while his beautiful assistant standing in front of me... I had to wonder if she was hired strategically....

Dent: I have faxed your treatment plan to the Insurance office. I shud get a go ahead in about a day... But I know that root canal is covered. So we will do the rootcanal now.

Me: okay..... as you wish... just get me outta this pain....

Asst: I will give you the anesthesia.

The doc starts drilling and even the beautiful assistant couldnt divert me away from the pain..

It was baddddddddddddddd
I held his hand and said no I cant take it....

Dent to his Asst: Did you give anesthesia?????
Asst: Yes Dr. Moon

Dent: I think you tooth are acidic..... I dont think you are getting numb.... you should take antibiotics for a week and then may be we can try....

Me (wondering why antibiotics, Cant I eat baking soda or something to reduce acidity) Ok.

That evening I was in PAIN cuz he drilled a part of the nerve and it was pain personified....

So I called the office for some prescription. She had faxed it to the pharmacy and I got it. Much to my despair it was Ibuprofen and this whole ordeal took about an hour. I was like.... Cant we just buy these without a prescription in India.....

Anyway that subsided the pain and I was getting ready for my second visit.....

Second Visit:

Dent: Did you take the antibiotics?

Me: Yes.. all 21 of them.... I dont know what will happen to my stomach....

Dent: Ahhh you will be okay.... Lets finish what we started

After anesthesia he tried to drill and got a lot of it out....

Dent: 2 roots down, I will have to kill the last nerve......

He didnt even finish the sentence, I was in hell.... Now I know why they are called gatekeepers of hell..... And all this while I was thinking why people get so scared of a dentist....

The Dent gave up and said "ok.... we will try again next time

Dent: Did you drink last weekend heavily?
Me: Last weekend? I havent had a single drink in 15 days....
Dent: Do you have any liver problems????
Me (obviously worried): None that I know of....
Dent: Then the infection may be too big to get it numb, so we will try next week.
Me (even more worried): Ok

Now that he had put this thought in my mind, I had to find out if I had any symptoms of a liver problem or so.... I browsed for four hours and finally figured out that I dont have any symptoms

Third Visit...

early in the morning 7'o clock appointment (cuz I dont think that taking half a day off for yet another dentist appointment would stretch it at the office....)

Me: Dr. Moon, just curious... what is the max sittings have you taken for a root canal?

Dent: 2 and I have seen a case like you for the first time....

Me (frowning): Do you think I will be done this time.....

Dent: Yes, cuz I have already done it.... just need to do the filling.

May be they are not that bad. Then again.... he made me browse for 4 hrs last week to figure out why I wasnt getting numb.....

After he killed the roots... he put in artificial ones....

I was intrigued as usual and asked him about those....

He says, " Well in third world countries the treatment is cheap, so they dont use these artificial ones. They just clean the roots and leave it like that. This makes the tooth very weak.... and a chance of nerve growing back."

At this instant I was a bit hurt and obviously retorted, "Well, I have had another root canal done in the US and they haven't done it here either." But realized that I needn't be so harsh cuz he still can make me dance do his drilling buzz.....

But Yessssss I was third time lucky....


However before leaving the dentists office I did ask him one question... the one that I wanted to be answered bad...

How bad is smoking for teeth?

Smoking stains and thats it.... It has other health problems, but not for teeth... Don't drink cuz it hurts your teeth more than smoking....

Well I have one less reason to quit smoking.... but then again.... he started making me think about drinkin toooo.... :(


So may be my policy of not going to a doctor till it is absolutely necessary works for me after all... I think :p