I have a new respect for the great white shark. No wonder they seem a bit testy. I mean if you had all those teeth that kept growing in rows and you manage to break a few or pull a few out on a daily basis...wouldn't you be just a little bit annoyed??? Talk about teething pain. They loose a tooth another one takes it's place and another one grows behind that. Now they say these sharks aren't really man eaters. Maybe we are just a test to see if we make nice objects to chew to help the teething pain????

With that in mind...let me tell you about my latest experience. I went to the dentist about a month ago with tooth pain. I have never had tooth pain. As a matter of fact, since I was 17, I haven't had any cavities. I have three fillings and that is it. So, I go to the dentist and tell him I am having pain from the back of my upper jaw to my front teeth. He does the appropriate exams and x-rays. He pokes around in my mouth and tells me he can't find a thing. He offers to give me pain medicine and antibotics, just in case. I thanked him and left his office feeling like maybe I was losing my mind. I know pain when I feel it, but I decided to take his word that nothing was wrong. I didn't get any pain pills and I didn't have the prescription filled for an antibiotic. If there wasn't anything then why treat it, right???

About a week ago I woke up with this big, huge, red, puffy, and painful looking thing on my upper right gum. I know an abscess when I see one. I am a nurse after all. So what do you think I did??? Well, I didn't go back to the dentist. I managed to make the the abscess drain...which hurt a lot! I thought it would go away...but no. My tooth really didn't hurt, but it keep bleeding and draining.

Finally I decided yesterday to tuck my tail fins and go back to the dentist. So I went and the dentist had another x-ray done of the tooth next to my back tooth on the right upper side. That is where he was able to stick some kind of pointy thing way up under my gum. He came back in to give me the news. For some reason or the other that tooth had died and there was an abscess that developed. He went on to give me my options of a root canal which would later require a filling and a crown which would cost about $1400 dollars. If I had the tooth pulled it was about $80 dollars. He further explained that if the tooth was cracked then the root canal wouldn't work and I would lose the tooth anyway. He also said that if I wanted it pulled he could do that right away. Hummmm so I contemplated my options....


It didn't take too long for me to make up my mind. That tooth had already caused me a month of agony. My mood was not improving. If I were to have a root canal and then the tooth be cracked....my mood would not be nice at all. I decided rather quickly to have the thing pulled. I have to say I appreciated the honesty and the lack of this guy not pushing me one way or the other.

Now I am ready for this procedure. I haven't had any teeth pulled since the wisdom teeth way back when. I decided against the laughing gas and told him to go for it. I lean back in the chair and he of course tells me to "open wide"....



..."a little wider please"....



He goes about numbing my gums and the roof of my mouth. Then he tells me, "now I am going to rock the tooth back and forth to loosen it" and then I hear this noise in my head like ripping meat off a bone...and there it is....the culprit in all it's glory.....


He puts this cotton thing in my mouth and tells me to clamp down...


He is as excited as an archeologist on some great find. He is jabbering on about..."look there..that is the pus pocket that was causing you the pain...and see that crack going all the way down that root"....

I am thinking boy did I save myself a load of money. Remember if the tooth was cracked even a root canal wouldn't have fixed the problem.

Now, as I sit here and feel this gaping hole....I wonder what the future will be. Will I continue to have little or no dental problems in the future....or will I have to have a whole set of new choppers???


This whole experience has given me a new and clearer perspective on the testy temperament of the great white shark. At least I have only one row of teeth to worry about!


Have a great day and don't forget to brush, floss, and rinse with a good mouth wash.