Good Riddance To That Tooth
I broke the tooth many years ago and a couple of dentists had tried to fill it, but it always caused me a certain amount of pain. I don’t remember how I broke it, but I think it might have been on a bread roll in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy. The only person, who could know is C, and she has been gone for over four years now.
After the stroke it got painful and no matter what I did, it was giving me pain. Since the stroke it seemed to have got worse and I often thought it smelt of something like rotten fish. It will be three weeks tomorrow, since I had the tooth finally removed in the Royal London.
Since then, I’ve been to dentists twice to have a look at it and one gave me some antibiotics. A few days or so a small piece of tooth came through the gum.
Yeserday though, another piece came out and it was about the size of a child’s front tooth. The gum bled a bit, but by the time I got to bed and after a whisky, it was OK.
I also slept very well and long and woke without any tooth pain. And that means also none in the left hand side of my face for the first time in a year.
Strangely, my left hand seems to be working better in the typing.
It’ll be interesting to see what my dentist says, when he reviews it all on Wednesday.
My only regret is that I’d had it out a year ago. Or even earlier.
Was My Bad Tooth Causing Other Problems?
I’m still on a soft food diet, as the socket still aches slightly, but I was able to eat a piece of bread with some soup last night.
The biggest change though, is that my allergies seem to be decreasing. That can’t be right can it? Symptoms like my sneezing and itching are getting better and when I blow my nose, it’s much dryer. Except for the slight tooth ache, I’m almost feeling normal. I’m also having to correct less spelling mistakes in my typing.
But am I bothered? No! Of course not!
On the other hand when I was a child no-one could find what I was allergic too. And I had rather packed and mixed up teeth, which were only sorted, when my dentist took out four pre-molars to give the others more space. Was it about the same time, that the worst of my allergic problems got a bit better. But all my records from those days have disappeared so I can never find the truth.
I’m now certain now, that some of my problems about getting back after the stroke were due to that tooth. After all I broke it about twenty years ago and it has never been good since. One very good dentist I had sad that because of my gagging response, it would be impossible to crown.
I’ve also looked back at some of the posts of a year or so ago.
This post describes how I ended up in Addenbrooke’s with tremendous pain. They thought it was probably a blocked sinus. As they were certified clear a few months later, I suspect, as does my current dentist, that it was the tooth.
I also mused about coeliac disease and my recovery. This post talks of another incident, where the tooth seemed to be the villain.
And this is the incident, after which I was put on Keppra. Knowing what I know now about myself and especially the trapped nerve in my neck, I suspect that it was caused more by my nerve and arm damage than the stroke. But I’ve never had anything like another seizure since.
It’s all very strange.
Am I Lucky Or Does The Devil Look After Me?
Throughout my life, I’ve often been described as lucky and several times, positive things seem to happen to me by chance.
For instance, I met my late wife at Liverpool University, when I manipulated a scheme for students to get partners for one of the guild balls.
I ended up in Metier, after a chance meeting outside an opticians on Great Portland Street.
I’ve also been mentored well, by a lot of friends, who would never be described as conventional. Some sadly are no longer with us.
and I could give lots more examples.
Even on Monday, when I had the tooth exorcised from my body, I did the right thing, as it needed three hours and three dentists.
So is it luck or do some quickly weigh up the chances and make the right decision? I do know that my late wife would never describe me as boring and is that because I never throw any possibly useful information away from my brain. Since the stroke, I have lost some memory, like knowledge of who did this or that. But there is always Wikipedia!
As I don’t believe in any religion and believe organised religion is just another way to screw wealth out of the poor, then I can’t think that a devil exists either. Although after my last few years, it is more likely there is a devil, than a loving and peaceful god.
But then I’m a London mongrel! And they have more fight than a wagon-load of pit-bulls.
Taking The Plunge
I have had a bad molar tooth on the left hand side of my jaw for many years. Various dentists had attempted to fill it, but since the stroke, it had always given me a sort of dull pain. Not too serious but annoying anyway. I remember I asked my dentist in Felixstowe to have a look at it about eighteen months ago. He thought it might be a root canal job.
My new dentist in London, looked at it a couple of weeks ago and said that if it was him, he’d have the tooth out. after all, I lost the one on the other side about thirty years ago and it doesn’t cause me any problem.
So we decided to do the dirty deed on Wednesday the 14th!
Well that was the intention, but because of problems with my Warfarin and different views about how to handle it, my dentist and I decided that perhaps it might be better to use the Emergency Dentist at either the Royal London or Guys.
To me it wasn’t a choice, as the Royal London is just four stops away on the Overground from Dalston Junction. Guys is South of the river and I didn’t have a posse handy. I also have a lot of respect for the hospital, as Vanessa Wright and her team, saved the life of my granddaughter, who was born with a severe hole in her diaphragm.
I got to the Emergency Dentist department at about one and after giving my details and outlining my story, I was with a dentist by two. I was then X-rayed and by three, they were preparing to take out the errant tooth.
In the end they were very mob-handed. A female Chinese student originally from Hong Kong and a more experienced one probably from near the hospital, did most of the work.
But it got difficult and the Senior Tutor helped by effectively cutting the tooth in half, so they could dig it out bit-by-bit. It finally was removed just after 17:15.
It wasn’t too painful and they didn’t use any stitches. It was probably one of the most serious operations I’ve ever had without a full anaesthetic. Although being stitched up after my mugging in Naples was probably a lot more painful.
I suspect, I self-hypnotised myself by concentrating on the student’s eyes.
I got home OK, walking after the train from Whitechapel to Dalston Junction.
I thought I needed some cash for the morning, so I walked round the corner to the little Sainsburys. However, I then found that I didn’t need the money after all, so I came home.
As I crossed the zebra crossing, an ambulance stopped and waved towards me. I thought they were just asking me to cross, so I did.
It was only when I got home, that I realised that they might have been worried about me, as I had a rather bloody face and I was dabbing it with a bloody tissue. I did phone 101 to tell the Police, in case the ambulance had reported a mugging or assault.
After the football, I couldn’t sleep and now I’m sitting here typing, as a doctor has told that to lie down, will start the bleeding in the pocket again.
At least I had a clean tea-towel, which I’m cutting into small squares to mop up the blood.
The only thing , I’ve eaten is a couple of bananas.
Getting Better
In some ways I am.
Yesterday, I went to my new dentist, who is in Notting Hill conveniently on the Central or Shopping line, rather than my last one who is in Felixstowe. Sorry Andrew, but it’s a bit far to go for pain!
I was asked to fill in a form and this asked what my occupation was. I said it was Getting Better, which raised a bit of a titter, even if it is true.
My new dentist is actually my son’s dentist. And he felt that I must have been very young, when I became his father. Was 23 really that young?
Anyway, the check found nothing wrong, except for a tooth I broke about thirty years ago, which has been giving me a bit of trouble since the stroke. The new dentist just X-rayed it and said that the root was fine, which is what my old dentist had recommended. It probably won’t last another thirty years, but will I?
I was just booked in for the hygienist and that was it.
So that was pretty painless!
A Visit to the Dentist
I must have known my dentist for nearly forty years. I first met him at a dinner party, we hosted at our old house in Debach. I seem to remember he came with a solicitor friend of C’s. But I’m not sure and it could have been that C was one of his patients, but then she wouldn’t have invited her dentist to dinner.
C must have gone to him for well over thirty years and I went back about five years ago, when my dentist retired and I couldn’t find another one.
Since the stroke, I’d had a very sore mouth and I felt that as I was going to the hygenist anyway, that a visit to the dentist might not be a bad idea.
It was, as he gave me a clean bill of health and felt that there were no problems. He thought that to visit your dentist after a stroke is not a bad idea, as negatives from professionals who know you, tick another problem off the list. He also advised staying off tomatoes and spices if you’re on Warfarin, as if you bite your tongue, it can be painful.
I’ve certainly felt better today, with clean teeth and a mouth that is less sore. It was a visit worth doing.
The Anonymous Widower 