26.01.2007 14:19 - Cowboy Dentists.
I am in pain.
I have just been to the second of a projected three dental appointments, where I have had a filling. This filling took place with a certain amount of drilling, but no anasthetic. Dentists, you see, are the bane of my life.
I am reliably informed that when I was seven, I refused anasthetic and had a tooth out without uttering a single peep. That may be so, but the real reason I refused anasthetic was I was terrified of needles, and the main alternative- gas - had been banned the previous year. I left the surgery feeling that perhaps a needle in the gums was a small price to pay for the subsequent agony.
My dental agony, however, did not recede. In 1995 I started having problems with an abscess, My dentist put me on antibiotics, which, he said, would clear it up.
It didn't clear it up. It made it worse.
So bad, as a matter of fact, that my right cheek ballooned up with the infection. I was in agony, and was eating painkillers like smarties. After several promises from the dentist, that the "antibios would clean it up, don't worry" I finally went and demanded he do something, otherwise I'd do it. He lanced the cheek and was amazed how much muck he got out of it.
I was put on stronger antibios, and came back a week later to have the offending tooth removed. But it was too late. The infection had been transmitted to another tooth. He took that one out as well. Except, dear reader, in doing so he managed to damage the tooth that I have had filled today. It was then just a matter of time until the present problem erupted. My current dentist said that he has never seen such a catalogue of cock-ups as have been inflicted upon me. I, have in turn, explained to him what the english term "cowboy" means, especially in connection with dentists.
