Harry's Blog

I've been struggling recently. For the last few weeks I've been having increasingly bad toothache. It started when I was away with L in Skegness. I had a sleepless night due to ache, but it wasn't too bad. Over the next few weeks I had some pain and other days were totally fine.

The tooth in question had a filling fall out. This happened quite a while ago, at Jimbo's wedding. But it didn't hurt and I've made sure it was kept clean and everything. But it seems that really wasn't enough and over the last year the tooth has been wearing away.

It got to the point on Sunday night that I couldn't sleep at all. The pain was even worse on Monday. It was like nothing I've ever felt in my entire life. Sheer agony. It became the centre of my world - there was nothing going on, no thoughts, no personality, just pain, sheer hot-knife-through-the-face pain. Truly it was agony on another scale. And worse of all, painkillers no longer helped, it was like the pain just burned right through them. They'd take the edge off for an hour or so, but then it would be hours of hell before I could take any more.

I'm not registered with a dentist and had no knowledge of what I should do. But some investigating led me to an emergency dentist in Hazel Grove. I was supported by the incomparable L, who really looked after me and helped me get through all this.

An x-ray showed that the tooth had decayed to the point where the nerve was exposed. I had a nerve exposed to the air, no wonder it hurt so much. There was also an infection on the root. So the dentist offered me a choice, several visits to save the tooth, with root fillings etc. The other choice was simple, the tooth had to come out.

I took the latter. I'm moving in just over a week and didn't need the complication. And I really needed relief, I was in too much pain and thought pliers would be better than a drill. The sense of relief when the anaesthetic took the pain away was astonishing. I felt so totally relieved. And then the tooth itself had to come out - the dentist was only a wee lass and the thing didn't want to come out. It took some real leverage and quite a while.

I'll leave further thoughts to the gorgeous L:

"I've not seen anyone in pain like that before. Plus I watched them pull it out... eeew...honestly, I knew he was stubborn, but I didn't realise it extended to his teeth. Took the poor woman about ten minutes to lever it out of his mouth... and it was about an inch and a half long..."

And that's why I've been a quiet blogger these last few days. I've been going through hell. I'm still not totally okay. I feel exhausted and my face is a little swollen, it's going to take a while for my gum to heal. But I'm so glad that searing pain is over.

So folks, take my word for it. Visit a dentist if you lose a filling, and do it right away. I'm not going to make this mistake again.

Oh and if you're feeling really gross, you could always have a look at a picture I've taken of the manky tooth in question.