I explained my situation
That I was in severe pain
And I didn't sleep a wink with the horrible throbbing in my tooth
I was in agony
They told me to go straight in
I was glad because by this stage I felt like banging my head off a brick wall
I downed some painkillers and my mother and I set off
I arrived there about 10 15am
But there was some sort of dental emergency happening
And I was told to come back in an hour
I silently cursed under my breath and left
To distract myself I bought a pair of slippers and trousers
The hour dragged
And eventually it was time to go back
I was called in and I sat down on the chair
He lowered the chair so far back that my head was resting on his chest
Uncomfortable much?
He looked at my teeth and said that my last remaining back tooth would have to come out
I didn't care
I was in so much pain I wouldn't have cared if he took every tooth in my head out
Anything but this pain
He injected my gums to numb them
And I went out to the waiting room
I'm always paranoid that my gums are not numb enough
I kept probing my tooth to see if I could feel anything
I didn't feel too numb at all
Soon I was called back in
I told the dentist my fear that my gum wasn't properly numb
He said he would start and if I felt any pain he would stop
Oh my good God
I didn't like the sound of that
He picked up an instrument and began to loosen my tooth
But as soon as he had started I felt a red hot pain straight away
My knee jerk reaction was to pull his hands away from my mouth
And that's what I did
'Don't touch my hands' he snapped
Well excuse for not wanting you to take my tooth out while my gum is not numb
More injections
Many more
It hurt like nobodies business
Then he began again
This time I couldn't feel anything
Just a lot of pressure and pulling
I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed for it to be over
My head was being pulled in unnatural positions
And it seemed to be taking a long time
10 minutes later and the tooth still wasn't out
I could feel bits of it breaking off and landing on my tongue
I was starting to freak out slightly
As I had no clue what was going on
The dental assistant kept saying 'You're so brave Ruby, you're a great patient'
I felt like saying Fuck you, you horrible dentist, get your hands off me
But I didn't
I put up
And shut up
And resisted the urge to get up and run out of the room
Tooth or no tooth
Another 5 minutes later and I still wasn't sure what was going on
Lots of pressure
Lots of pulling and probing and pushing
All of a sudden it became too much
I could feel tears stinging the back of my eyes
'There' the dentist said
'Is it out' I asked
'Yes but it was a very difficult extraction' he replied
No shit Sherlock
I just sat through the bloody thing
I tried to keep my dignity in tact and stood up even though my legs felt like jelly
When the assistant saw me crying she told me that I had done really well
And handed me a tissue
My Mother was sitting in the waiting room
I started to sob
It was the most horrific dentist experience that I have ever had
The dentist told that I couldn't smoke for a week
I obeyed that instruction for all of 5 minutes
And lit up the minute I got outside
By now I was feeling very sorry for myself
I just wanted to go home
Thankfully the guilty culprit is now gone
It's such a relief not to be in pain
To feel normal again
I'm home now
I'm going to have a cup of tea
And have a little rest
Nighty night
