Wisdom In Tooth

I’ve been having toothache since a few weeks now, and today I finally decided to call and make an appointment. At the appointment, the dentist checked and said I have the option of doing a filling or pulling my bad tooth off. I chose the latter.

There’s a few reasons but one of them is that it would require less visit to the clinic. Plus, I’ve removed my molars before and how bad could it be?

Bad, it was bad.

The dentist basically was twisting my head from side to side as she tried to pluck the tooth away. Apparently a pre-molar has ‘legs’ (root) and being a relatively healthy tooth with only decay on the top (crown), it was a challenge. The dentist keep saying, “Good job, almost there,” which I think she was saying more to herself, as I clearly felt that the tooth was still stuck firmly in my gums. She took a 30 seconds break, and continued swinging almost violently. The fairy tale of the Three Pigs and The Wolf came to mind. “She huffed and puffed… and kept pulling the tooth.”

Meanwhile I was laying there, with a perspex visor but my eyes close, wondering if I made a bad decision today. I didn’t come to a conclusion until the anaesthetics wear off, and it was a resounding yes. The next few hours was spend munching on cotton puffs/bands in order to curb the bleeding. I tried to convince myself that the pain of today, although severe, would be greatly compensated in comparison to a prolonged pain over weeks. It’s a bit easier to write that and believe it now, late at night when the pain has subsided, but at that time, it felt like a blatant lie.

Such is the human mind. We can create constructs, we can say we believe them and willing to do anything for it, but when the mind is exposed to sufferings, it expunges all the convictions.

Ya Muqallibal Qulub, Thabbit Qalbi ala dinik.

Thank you for reading.