jumpy jumpy vitamins « Honestly, it wasn’t so bad.

Honestly, it wasn’t so bad.

Round 1A of the ol’ root canal was Tuesday evening. This particular round is best described as “excavation”. My upper-left quadrant was numbed, and a dental dam was stuck around the affected tooth to isolate it from my tongue and saliva. The dentist and his assistant worked to scrape out any infected tissue from the affected tooth, using files and drills and other nifty tools. An hour later I had an X-ray of the affected area (to verify that the canal had been successfully cleared out), a temporary filling, an appointment card, and a keep-on-flossing lecture.

Thanks to the dental dam, I couldn’t really see or taste or smell anything that was happening. I did, however, enjoy checking all the tools the dentist and his assistant used: the little files with handles that remind me of resistors, the crazy-long drill bits, the electronic “you’ve hit bone” sensor hooked to my cheek… my inner tool-geek was LOVING IT. I just wish I could have seen those tools at work; for a few minutes there I wondered how weird it would sound to request a mirror on the ceiling for future procedures.

On the whole, though, the procedure was low-grade sensory deprivation. I could only see a little bit to either side; I could only hear the drill and the storm and the endlessly looping video presentation from the next patient over; I could only feel the way the drill’s vibrations resonated elsewhere in my skull; I could only smell the chlorine-based solution used to sterilize tools; and I could only taste latex, and in a non-sexy sort of way. I’m an introvert in real life, though, so the whole experience turned out to be a good time to rearrange things in my own head and recharge for the coming days.

In preliminary analysis, I don’t see why everybody cringes at the mention of “root canal”; it really wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had done. I may change my tune in a few weeks, though.