A Piffle Princess Story

COTTON IN MY MOUTH


"Mas maayu pa ang sakit sa pagbulag sa uyab kaysa magsakit ang ngipon..."

That would roughly translate to "It's better to suffer from the pain of breaking up with your boyfriend/girlfriend than to suffer from tooth pain!" Our pharmacist was the one who jokingly told me that, but I really believe that is oh so true!

I've always had problems with my teeth. I think it's because I never gave them much importance. When I was a kid, almost all my milk teeth were black with cavities so you can't find a single picture of me with a toothy smile. And although I eventually grew even, white permanent teeth, I also had frequent episodes of excruciating toothaches during med school. I've already had several of them extracted because of the pain until I realized that I might lose all of my teeth if I don't take care of them. So early this year I went to my dentist to have dental fillings. It took him two afternoons since he found around 16 cavities! And when I was still working in Camiguin, our hospital dentist made me dentures which I've been using for more than 6 months now. Since then, I have been brushing and using mouthwash religiously so I thought I am now free from teeth problems but I was wrong.

I have an impacted wisdom tooth (third molar) on the lower left side but the dentist said it was OK not to pull it out as long as it doesn't get infected. But a few months ago, the tooth just broke and then the molar beside it started developing a huge cavity. Since I was in Manila the previous months I never got the chance to have it fixed. And then when I got back here, it started aching almost every night. I've taken antibiotics and various pain relievers which gave temporary relief but the pain almost recurred every night.

Two nights ago I was on 24-hour duty when my teeth started aching again. My head felt like it was cracking and I was also starting to feel feverish. I started taking pain meds one after another but still the pain didn't go away. It was a horrible sensation and before I knew it, I already took THREE tablets of AL*****, TWO tablets of TR****, TWO tablets of BIOGESIC, and ONE tablet of DOLFENAL -- all within a span of FIVE HOURS! I think I might have overdone it with the TR******. Until now I still feel kinda deaf and woozy. @__@

So this morning I finally went to see my dentist who, by the way, has been elected as next year's PDA President for CDO (Congrats Doc! ^___^). He found three damaged teeth -- the said broken impacted third molar, the second molar beside it, and another upper molar. However he only took out the second molar because he still needs me to get an XRay for the two other teeth. So hopefully I won't experience any pain until I see my dentist again next week.