Man vs Nature

This is the story of my trip to the dentist today.
The issue of oral hygiene is one of the most underrated aspects of Human health especially in this part of the world. Most people tend to overlook or undermine the importance of oral hygiene.

This story goes way back to when i was about nine years old on my first trip to the dentist. I had a cavity in one of my tooth and it needed to be filled. At that time the pain was quite excruciating considering i was only a kid. A few years later and i was back at the dentist's again to remove a tooth that become inflammed or something like that. I was given a injection in my gum to numb the pain that would result from the removal of the tooth. I remember driving home from the hospital with half of my mouth somewhat paralysed from the injection. I remember how much fun i had with my sisters because it made me talk funny. Anyway that was about 10-11 years ago and i have not even come close to a dentist since then.

I have had a few dental problems since then like , swollen gums, sensitive teeth, inability to chew, bleeding gums and some other ones like that, most of which i had either ignored because they didn't really cause me any inconvinience or because the inconvinience was bearable and temporal. All these have been my body's way of telling to go and see a dentist. Warning's i have blatantly ignored until three days ago.

My body decided to take matters into it's own hands. And i got a crude awakening, one i could not ignore. At 2 am on Saturday i woke up to a pain so excruciating it almost split my head in two. immediately i texted my newly found dentist and friend @thelovejunkie that i wanted to remove a the aching tooth. The pain went down towards the end of the day but again 3am Sunday morning the pain came back even stronger and i had a drama ministration in church that morning. I really dint know how i was going to go about it as i could barely talk. Luckily and thanfully the pain subsided again and i was able to do the ministration.

After church, i took a picture of my teeth and sent to my dentist and she said My mouth was filled with plaque, calcullus, and one other thing she called again. She also said i had a condition called hyperdontia, meaning i had more than 32 teeth. She prescribed a pain killer which helped immensely, although i think i may have overdosed on it hahahahahahahaha. Anyway, i was able to endure until this morning when i went to see her. It was quite an enlightening encounter and i really learnt alot.

First @thelovejunkie asked me a few questions, and then she did an examination of my teeth and she counted 4 extra teeth, one of which was the one causing me pain and needed to be taken out. Then she started out with scaling and polishing my teeth which is the dental version of washing basically. I was amazed at the amount of gunk that came out my teeth.And then deja vu, she gave that same injection i had had years ago and when i started to feel that numbness in my mouth i smiled cos it brought back alot of pleasant memories. And then she got to removing the tooth. And that was it, we were all done and i felt completely relived.

So now i understand the importance of oral hygiene and ideally, one should go for atleast a dental check up once every 5 months which i have totally not been doing.

@thelovejunkie was extra caring and gentle with me and i was completely at ease with her. I saw a movie once and a dentist there said

There is a level of trust that patients place in their dentist, been able to lie down and leave their mouth at the mercy of the dentist.

And i have to say , At first i felt a little shy having to let someone poke around the privacy of my mouth but the moment i saw @thelovejunkie i felt at ease. Maybe it was her smile or the calmness in her voice or her jovial demeanor. Anyway if you are in ibadan and you need to do a dental check up or stuff like that don't hesistate to call her and set an appointment.

THANKS @thelovejunkie.