Zub Tales

Every year this happens, then it goes away eventually and I forget the pain. It started really badly again yesterday.

I’ve never gotten my wisdom teeth out and they’re throbbing again. Some years when I was freelancing I had the nerve to get them out but didn’t have a dental plan. Other years I had the coverage but didn’t have the nuts to get them taken out, opting for pain killers instead and waiting for it to subside.

One of the lower teeth is actually lying sideways with its roots heading up into my jaw. That one will hurt the most out of the four (it also hurts the most now) and has a slight chance of damaging the nerves in my jaw when it’s taken out. That scares me the most and has kept me from carrying through on the whole deal.

My new coverage is coming through at the college. Maybe I’ll step up to the plate and get it done this time. The idea of being knocked unconcious for the procedure seems quite appealing right now.

Even on Advil and Tylenol I could barely sleep last night and the numbing, pounding ache when I woke up this morning was excruciating. I’m sitting at my desk at the college answering e-mails with a dizzy haze of agony in my face. I look in the mirror and there seems to be minimal swelling I can see, but my face feels grotesque and bloated nonetheless. The bags under my eyes definitely don’t help the whole thing.