About teeth and the quality of life... weak stomachs, beware!

Dear Readers,

I've really missed you a lot. Even if I don't receive comments on all my posts, it was enough for me to know that my missives are out there in cyberspace, communicating my thoughts and ideas to some fellow human beings. So I really missed writing to you in the past week!

Well, today I am departing from the norm and writing about something I really did not enjoy. Since our return from Bengaluru, I had been prey to extreme lethargy and bouts of chills and fever. I tried to brush it off blaming it on some Bengaluru bug, but the pain struck - and how - on Diwali eve. I woke up on Diwali day with a humongous toothache that threatened to incapacitate me. But since we had already made plans to spend the day at a beachside resort, I resorted to taking painkillers at 6-hourly intervals to just survive. Thanks to those pink pills, I could swim and frolic to my heart's content.  I paid for it the next day when I went to the dentist and he told me that an impacted wisdom tooth had created a massive infection and I would have to first combat the infection and then get the tooth extracted. So last Thursday after a Herculean effort by the doctor that lasted 5 hours, the culprit came out. I am left with three stitches and swelling and pain that flares each time the medication wears off. I was so relieved when the tooth finally came out that I would have prostrated before it if the doctor had allowed me. The pain and the accompanying malaise was so bad that I totally lost interest in anything and just lay down whenever I could. Thank God, my mother-in-law chose this time to visit us. She helped me take care of the home and other things while I rested whenever I could.

Here is my advise to you - please get your wisdom teeth checked by the dentist to see if they have enough space to grow. I saw the x-ray of mine - there was so little space for it to grow, that it was growing at a 45-degree angle and its roots were under the molar in front of it! Hope you are spared such a painful ordeal. And I hope you get a good-humored dentist such as mine, who helped lessen the suffering a lot with his timely jokes and teasing - an invaluable trait in a grisly job!