Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Like an old lady

France, evening

My dinner tonight has been boiled vegetables with some melted cheese. The vegetables were over-boiled so that I could smash them well. Still, it took me more than an hour to eat my dinner, having to stop every few minutes in pain and to put a small piece of cotton back in the right place.

I have no idea how many small pieces of cotton I ate in the last days.
It is not even biological cotton.

But let me go back to where all began.
Last week I started to have tooth pain. I didn't give any consideration to it, till after two days the pain was so strong that I couldn't eat without feeling a sharp pain. I saw a dentist who said that I had an infection in one tooth. The conversation went more or less like that:

-Him: This tooth has been devitalized.
-Me: Yes. In Germany, a few years ago. I had a long surgery to the nerve and the bone around the nerve because there was an infection.
- Him: ah, the Germans.....they never clean the infections!
- Me: I think they did. The surgery lasted quite longtime and I never had any problem after that.
- Him: until now.
- Me: until now, yes. But this happened in 2004, so almost 6 years ago. If the infection was still there, it would have bothered me earlier.
- Him: the Germans are the only ones who never think about cleaning the infection in the tooth too.
- Me: whatever. Can we do something for it?
- Him: sure. Let me make a hole in the tooth, till the bone, so that the anaerobic bacteria will die. If you get fever or your cheek starts to swell, then get an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic. Otherwise, we meet in a week from now. If you eat, put some small piece of cotton to close the hole in the tooth and remove it after eating.

This is how it went. So, the Germans, who based on my experience are careful in anything they do, turned out according to my dentist to be much less careful than the French........OF COURSE!!! For a moment I forgot the French Dogma:

FRENCH ALWAYS DO IT BETTER!

Even when it comes to dentist, apparently.

Anyway. Have you ever tried to eat with a piece of cotton in one of your teeth? it keeps falling. And if you are like me, by the end of the meal you probably ingested at least two or three pieces of cotton. All this (putting the cotton in the hole in your tooth and putting the cotton back when after a few seconds after you started to eat it falls out of place) is especially unpleasant when you are eating with other people. Of course, my social life is generally flat, but exactly in this moment, I had plenty of invitations for dinners and lunches.
I have to admit that I felt quite embarrassed.
But no fever or swollen cheek.

Things were starting to get better and I was already dreaming of being able to eat properly again and being able to bite things without needing a cotton replacement every few seconds, when today I felt a strong pain again in my tooth and in my head too. Fortunately, the super-French dentist received me at the end of the afternoon.
He did something to fix the problem and when I almost vomited for the disgusting thing that he put in my mouth he said:

-There is nothing better than injecting some bleach into the place where the infection is.

-Me: did you say bleach? In my mouth? so is this thing that I am swallowing now with my saliva a bleach.......????

-Him: Everyone cures infections like that. Of course, not the Germans.

Right....not the Germans......and maybe there is a reason for that.....Now I am going to have a very white throat, teeth (that would be nice), and stomach. Lovely!

Anyway, back to long lasting dinners with soft food and a lot of cotton pieces digested. Plus, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. French, Germans.....I don't really care who is doing things better at this point....

CAN JUST THIS INFECTION GO AWAY SO THAT I DON'T HAVE TO FEEL LIKE AN OLD LADY ALREADY?????

Fortunately, I love completely destroyed/wet cookies in my tea or coffee....that is perfect now (I can see the faces of at least two people who were going like "uhhhh, disgusting!" every time they would see me doing that :-))

PS. While looking for images of old ladies on google, I got on the blog from where I took the image that you can see with this post. Check out this blog. It has a lot of very nice sketches.

6 comments:

Scott said...

I agree about the Germans being very thorough...which leads to the question, "Do you trust this guy drilling holes in your teeth down to the bone?" Perhaps a second opinion? Why are you comparing yourself to an old lady...babies eat this stuff too! It's not much better but a slight improvement in image.

fromtheworld said...

as long as the infection goes away, I don't care too much about what he already did and who is right...he already injected the bleach, so...
You are right....better think of myself as a baby than as an old lady :-) Thanks!

Anonymous said...

how are you feeling now? it must have been painful!!

i have had much dental drama. i always wonder why me. but it is because of all the candy i ate as a child. i have an excellent dentist who fixes me up really well inspite of my fear and self pity.

he usually puts in a temporary filling. something to last until my next visit so i have no problems eating or risk of infection.

he pops it out when i return to finish the job.

hope you are feeling better. i must admit when my teeth bother me i am miserable. when they are fixed i feel like a new person.

so funny about how the french think of the germans. it's like that everywhere. people think they, and their own country have perfection covered.

i hope your weekend is good and painless and you've had a chance to dance:)


~audrey

fromtheworld said...

Hi Audrey. I am an expert of dental problems too, unfortunately. I had any kind of tooth brackets, then I had some surgeries, and some infections. Horrible. And I never been a kid (or in general a person) who eat a lot of sweet things, so I don't know from where all this comes...

My tooth is getting better, but yesterday I was in pain again....so since I didn't want to run to the hospital, and I read on internet that an home-made remedy for the tooth infections is to rinse your mouth with warm water and salt, I did it. I don't know if this remedy is true, but I do feel much better this morning.

I am going to do a bit of dance now :-), then I have a full day of work today (unfortunately, because it is a beautiful day outside).

Anonymous said...

it's been some time, so i hope your teeth are feeling better. my dental hygenist said very often having dental problems could be something genetic, something we are born with that makes us prone to having problems with our teeth.

warm salt water is incredibly soothing. it's like the sea, sea water is soothing and healing...

i hope it helped.

audrey

fromtheworld said...

My tooth is starting to get better now...I am in my 4th day without pain....a success!!! I hope that it will last long....actually...forever! Thanks for asking about it!