But Doc…I Don’t Want A Root Canal !!

I started having some weird feelings in one of my upper teeth while we were in Kansas or Colorado (can’t remember).  I hate when I get those weird feelings that aren’t normal in a tooth.  It’s never good news, that’s for sure.  I called our dentist’s office right away and scheduled an appointment for as soon as possible after getting back to Tumwater. 

Unless it would be an absolute emergency, I don’t want any other dentist but our own touching my teeth!  I know some RVer’s have gone to Mexico for dental work and have had great success with that.  I’m just not going to be doing that.  When we moved up to Olympia, Washington in 1994, one of the first things we did was find a dentist.  I called 1-800-DENTIST and was given a full report on Dr. A. Agustin Vega on Harrison Avenue in Olympia.  You get information on everything:  education, background, experience, etc.  You can now do the 1-800 dentist search thing online which is easier.  We called and made an appointment back then and were totally satisfied.  That was it….we found our guy…..good to go now and forever.

So today was my day for Dr. Vega to check out my tooth and give me the diagnosis.  I got the x-ray done and he came and checked it all out on his computer.  Listened to my symptoms and my story.  Given what I told him he figured the tooth was dying….nerve damage or something and I needed a root canal.  I also have some minor bone loss in that area.  So I did not need a crown at this time, just the root canal.   Root canal !!!! Just the words are enough to scare the you-know-what out of me.  Back in 2007 Dr. Vega had to do a root canal and a crown on another of my teeth, so I knew he would be gentle with me.  Still scared though.  I had no time to back out because he had time in his morning schedule to work me in.  Well, isn’t that great, I’m thinking with fear. 

Assistants Katrina and Christina prepared the torture devices…..um..I mean instruments for the surgery.  I surprised them all by saying I wanted to take photos of them.  I had to explain about the whole blog thing and how I try to document stuff from our life and travels.  I still think they all thought I was a bit nuts.  :)

 

When I was all ready, Dr. Vega came in.  Now…this won’t hurt a bit.  He jabbed me kindly with the giant needle thing to deaden the area where the surgery would take place.   Yowser…that first one hurt a bit, doc.  Fortunately, after that first stick you get numb and don’t feel the others (much). 

While we were waiting for the full effect of the numbing medication to do it’s job, I got out of the dental chair (you know, the kind where you feel like you are almost lying upside down) and took a photo of Dr. Vega and his office staff, Stacey and Barbara. 

Pretty soon the right side of my face was feeling numb and my upper lip felt like it was 3 times the normal size and I knew we were ready for action.  Dr. Vega is a very considerate doctor and he took great care to make sure I was never in any pain.  Once he drilled a hole in my tooth to get access to the nerve, he could see it was in bad shape and there was a lot of inflamation there too.  It was probably on it’s way to getting infected.  Before I knew it he had the dead nerve out and was prepping the hole in my tooth for the final repairs.  In a short time, he was finished and I was as good as new….minus the pain and the bad nerve.

I went out to the desk and took a final photo before saying good-bye and thank you for taking such good care of our teeth for the past 16 years.  See how Dr. Vega and Stacey are all smiles?  That’s because we are good patients and pay our dental bill on time, too.

   

Going to the dentist has never been the most fun thing for me to do.  But my Dr. Vega is fantastic and he is a nice guy too!

Until next time…..so long for now!