It was just another root canal. I have had a few. The first one was on an impacted tooth. It was by far the worst. It was so bad I begged my wife to never let me take leave of my senses and get another. I would rather lose the tooth than go through that again. I told her the pain was so intense, that I would block the memory before long. It would be up to her to protect me from myself.

He did a smashing job!

The dentist did such a smashing job, it lasted more than forty years. I got my money’s worth. When I had to pull the plug on that tooth, I kept the crown. It was the last of the gold crowns. It weighs as much as my wedding ring. Today, they make the crowns out of plastic.

I Have Had More Though

I did get more root canals though. It was decades before the next time. It wasn’t nearly as traumatic. The most interesting was the last one. It had now become routine for me by now, I was experienced. The doc I went to had done a previous one on me. Or is that to me? Or for me? Not too sure. I was sitting in the chair, he was working away drilling out the root and the power went off in his building. Now this was a new twist.

He started freaking out. It wasn’t just about me, he had an office full of root canal patients in various stages of completion. All his staff was scurrying around in the dark looking for leadership. The doc started making the rounds giving all of us patients more whatevercane to keep us numb. They have so many different ‘ocanes today, I can’t remember exactly which he used. My concern was having a doc working me with dental tools while being jittery. There’s not much scarier to me than a high strung dentist with a drill in his hand heading toward my molar.

The Electricity Stayed Off

The electricity stayed off long enough that he removed the damn dam from my mouth before it split my lips apart. I needed water before I erupted into a coughing fit. My mouth and throat were parched and desert dry. After a couple of sips, I tried talking him down. Once he was engaged in conversation, I did my best to bring him back to the real world. I asked to get up and stretch my back and legs. I asked to use the potty, telling him he had no idea what it was like having an old man’s bladder. That clicked with him, and I was rewarded with a snicker.

The Whole Area Was Out

When I rose from the chair, I looked out the window and saw the whole area was sans electricity. I mentioned that to him and reassured him that the power company would react quicker to an area wide outage. One office or one building may not get as quick a response as a neighborhood.

We’re Back In Business!

Sure enough, about twenty minutes later we were back in business. I lay back in the chair, he gave me more shots and proceeded.

And the adventure was not over yet. He kept striking a hot nerve as he drilled. That meant more shots and more waiting. Now, dentists today are not like they were in the old days. I’ve had dentists who would say, sorry, and go on. I have had other ones who say, “It won’t be much longer, suck it up.” I don’t know when the change occurred, but this new crop was too empathetic to the patient’s pain.

Just Finish, Dammit!

This is dentistry, not a chair massage. Sometimes it hurts. It was bothering him more than it was bothering me, and I couldn’t talk. I’ve had worse. I got it through to him to go on, I don’t mind, just finish. This is not an appropriate career choice for a snowflake. Every time I would dance in the chair, out came the syringe. This was taking forever. I’ve had bad teeth all my life. I’ve been in enough pain that I look forward to going to the dentist. I know that must sound masochistic to many, but ithat’s not so. They have relieved me from plenty of deep pain. We’re talking about the kind of pain that is unendurable. If the price for that is flopping in the chair a bit here and there, so be it. That pain is more like a quick electric shock, gone in a second. I’m used to it. Please don’t confuse that with liking it. I don’t.

Finally!

Finally, we were through. He was drenched in sweat. When I got up, I tried to kid with him. I wanted to reassure him that I was doing fine and would not be waiting for him in the parking lot looking for paybacks. After a quick goodbye, he fled for another room, leaving me with the assistant.

All that Novocain or whatever was the worst thing for me. It left me addled for hours, he overdosed me so much that I was addled for the rest of the day. I don’t know what it is about that stuff, but it doesn’t agree with my system.

If I had been more thoughtful, I would have sent him a thank you card. I’m not.