Wisdom out, pain in
Every once in a while, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you’d ask yourself whether you are in pain or is the pain in you. And more often than you’d like, this situation would have something to do with a visit to your dentist.
I visited mine last night and returned home without my wisdom tooth.
Although I’d known how my molar was slanted and created a decaying impact on its neighbour, I did what idiots in my position usually do: delay the most important bits and focus on the least important bits. So, the damage was quietly going on inside the corners of my mouth. Until one night I woke up with intense pulling pain — more than a month ago. On my wife’s insistence, I paid a visit to her dentist. One look and an X-ray, she said it had to go. I told her I’ll meet her again 3 days later.
Didn’t show up for more than 5 weeks.
Last evening, after suffering sleepless nights and getting up feeling like holding a plucker, I finally did the needful. I don’t know about you but I find the mouth area to be very, very personal. And there is a dedicated group of professionals who spend their entire career peering into strangers’ mouth amazes me. These are noble people and rather underappreciated, which they make up by charging exorbitantly.
Goes without highlighting my bravery, the fact that a surgery was required in my case made me nervous to a large extent. As soon as I laid down on the reclining seat, she didn’t waste a second — maybe she thought it’s best to get done with me before I decided not to show up for another month or so — and straight away injected anesthesia into my gums. Now, I am that guy who has gone through 33 sessions of tattoos: I understand pain, both of deliberate as well as involuntary nature. Yet, I felt this sharp electric zing in my jawline before losing sensation in the lower jaw and lower right hand side of my face.
Long story short, she used some drilling device and removed the rogue wisdom tooth and I got up feeling strange as my tongue felt dead, with a strange stitchy feel inside. There’s nothing sadder than the feeling of helplessness; particularly the feeling that you’ve let it happen to yourself.
As expected, today was marked by constant spurts of agony throughout in office — despite ingesting prescribed painkillers — even while gulping water. I am not supposed to spit or gargle for 24 hours hence the dental procedure. So, I am taking everything in — quite literally. In sync with my mood, the weather is gloomy too.
They said the struggle is real.
They had no idea what they were talking about unless they had their wisdom teeth extracted in the most ghastly way followed by a civil suture.
Sorry for the exaggerations but like the Wise One said, “This too shall pass.” To which, given my current mental disposition, I can only say, “But wisdom will continue to fail.”
PS. Being a nostalgic being, I continue to miss my childhood dentist named Dr. Chang, a Kolkatan Chinese, who eventually married a fellow Chinese Indian. I once asked him whether he’s from northeast India. His reply was as neat as his work: “They don’t enjoy bad breath!”
