Drilling my teeth

Over the last 3 days, I have endured what I can only describe as constant, throbbing, jabbing pain. This pain comes from my teeth, specifically my 2nd and 3rd lower left molars (or lower left wisdom tooth, and the tooth right in front of it if you're too lazy to Google it).

Normally, I take pride in my pearly near-whites. Not have a team of Hollywood dentists to keep them bleach white like you see in the movies, I have still managed to get complimented both here and in Canada at the cleanliness of my teeth. It's something I take a bit of pride in, as I'm an obsessive tooth-brusher.

So when, a few months ago, I started getting a sharp pain in my teeth, I thought it was just nerves. I grabbed some Sensodyne and didn't think much about it.

In retrospect, I think I was a little foolish. The pain had, over time, been getting worse and worse. First it was just cold things, but lately it had become hot things too. I didn't think it was a cavity, as I keep good care of my teeth, and hadn't had one in years.

Yeah, that was a stupid assumption.

This morning I went first thing to the dentist. I have no real qualms about going to one. I even don't mind the dreaded dentist's drill. After some exploratory poking, and 2 x-rays, it turned out that I had 2 problems.

First was a massive cavity that was the source of the sharp jabbing pain. Second was my impacted wisdom tooth, get this, pushing INTO my cavity.

Near as I can calculate, I've gotten about 14 hours of sleep over the last 72 hours. Thursday night I got only 3 hours, and last night about 6, most of it because I was just exhausted.

In the dentists chair, the dentists shot some lasers into my teeth, but that didn't seem to work. As I was about to leave, I was called back because my distress was still evident, and they instead embarked on a treatment that involved a grinder and some contact pain medicine.

I swear to God I was almost in tears. This treatment HURT! I was, at times, literally writhing in pain, and twice I spasmed.

The grinding was fine, but there was some other procedure that was incredibly painful. I feel better now, but the pain is still there, though greatly diminished.

Of course, this is Japan, so my follow up treatment will have to happen on Monday, where they will extract the nerves there. I guess this is a root canal? I'm not 100
% sure. They've given me some heavy duty meds to deal with the pain, which I am to liberally supplement with my own stash of pain meds.

I honestly cannot wait until Monday.