Day 24: Insurance

The national health care debate? Can't say that I've paid much attention.

Okay, I haven't paid one smidge of attention. I have no idea what was proposed, passed into law, or debated upon.

I do know though that today I am happy that I have dental insurance.

Last week when I had a cold, I did a lot of breathing through my mouth.

I don't recommend being a mouth breather. Sometimes however, it's unavoidable. As part of my mouth breathing, I noticed that one of my teeth, a molar on the right side in the back, was not only a bit sensitive to cool air, but to cold drinks. I called the dentist and got an appointment for this afternoon.

Once at the dentist, it at first appeared to be pretty routine. Sit in the chair, wear the bib, do a couple of tests. I assumed that the minor tooth pain was due to a cavity - I'd cracked a filling and had it repaired back in July and I just figured that the tooth was having a few issues.

Well, it was having a few issues.

The roots were dead and my tooth was abscessed.

After my dentist poked around and looked at my x-ray he said to me, "You only have minor pain?"

I said, "Yeah, it's not really that bad."

"You should be in excruciating pain. Your nerves are dead. We need to do a root canal today. Do you take the gas?"

"Root canal? Yeah. Gas? Yes!"

In all ironies of ironies, I had a diseased tooth that should have been killing me and I couldn't even feel it. But, my mouth refused to get numb and after 3 doses of Novocaine and a bit of drilling I felt everything. I got another dose - and still felt everything. My dentist gave me a fifth dose from that giant needle right into the center of my tooth.

It hurt.

My eyes watered.

Then, two hours later, with the right side of my face numb up through my ear and down through my neck I was on my way home with a prescription for antibiotics and an appointment for next week to finish the procedure and cap everything off.

Good thing my December trip to California got canceled today. Too bad I'll be paying for it through my mouth anyway.