Jigga, what?!

{Image found here}

Well that picture just about sums up my afternoon!

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I had a cavity filled back in mid-December. At the time, I didn't mind so much because, hey, it got me out of another afternoon of the most mind-numbingly boring job on Earth. But more than a week later, I was still having stabbing pains in my tooth every time I chewed on that side - not good. So Tuesday before our vacation, I went back to the dentist to have it checked out. There was much talk of filing it down a little more, bruising, swelling, waiting, pain tolerance....and then the dreaded words 'root' and 'canal' right next to each other in the same sentence. I went home hoping and praying that the dentist had fixed the problem and that a few more days of rest would solve the problem.

Not so much. Two weeks later, vacation is over and I still can't use that side of my mouth. On the bright side, I have some fantastic jaw muscles on the right side of my face now.

So to the endodontist I went this afternoon for a consultation. Yay! Another missed afternoon of work! I figured a thirty minute consultation at 2:00 and then I'm out and home a full two hours earlier than usual. Wahoo!

The tech girl comes in, taps around on my tooth, touches it with cold, touches it with hot, makes me bite down, takes an x-ray. Looks like I definitely need a root canal and she'll have the endodontist come in to look at it. Enter Dr. Endo, who taps around on my tooth, touches it with cold, touches it with hot, makes me bite down, looks at the x-ray. Yup, I concur, you need a root canal.

Major bummer, right? My wallet feels lighter already.

So as I'm laying there listening to exactly how a root canal works, he sticks a cotton swab in my mouth and suddenly my cheek goes all tingly. Which is when he says, 'We'll just numb you a little before we do the injections'.

Whoa, wait a minute. Jigga, what?!

WE'RE DOING THIS NOW?

I'm pretty sure my face looked exactly like that monkey up there. I was totally and completely shocked. I was expecting a consultation and a follow-up appointment, before which I would take copious amounts of relaxants and possibly mix them with alcohol (KIDDING! Sort of.) What I was not expecting was a root canal. Silly me.

Apparently it's standard operating procedure at that office to follow up a consultation with a two hour opening for an immediate procedure. Um, might be nice to tell the patient this on the phone, don't you think?

They, of course, offered to let me come back if I preferred, but that was clearly not what they wanted me to choose. And being that I was already there and all tingly anyway, I bit the bullet and forged ahead. The procedure itself was not bad at all, if you don't mind having your mouth wedged open and the smell of burning teeth in your nostrils for nearly an hour. And lucky me, I get to go back to my regular dentist for a crown in two to three weeks. Hear that sound? That's my wallet crying quietly in the background.

But when all was said and done? A surprise root canal is still better than an afternoon at work.