![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Achey breaky teeth
Nov. 23rd, 2021 04:31 pmIt didn't seem fair that the long-term low-level toothache should resurface when I was already suffering from a cold. But it was going to happen sooner or later, and I'd found a tiny chip of something metallic, and wasn't surprised. I muttered a bit about toothache being an unexpected symptom of a cold, but I didn't really believe it - I just didn't want to take an infectious cold to the dentist with me.
Over the weekend, though, it was painful enough that first thing on Monday morning I called the dentist and explained the situation. Once we had established that this definitely was just a cold (I had done a covid test and it was negative) there was no problem about an appointment for lunchtime the same day.
THe interesting thing is that apparently toothache can indeed be a symptom of a cold: since both colds and teeth put pressure on the sinuses, they can interact in a painful way.
This was not all that was going on in my case, though: a filling had been more than chipped, it had been dislodged, and since the filling was the only thing holding the tooth together, it had broken in two. There was no alternative but extraction, and the good (?) news was that she could do it right now.
I do not remember when I last had a tooth out. It has certainly happened, I have gaps in my mouth as evidence. But I have no memories of it, and perhaps this is just as well. The process was not painful in itself, but it was one of the longer 20-minutes of my life, and the constant reassuring and soothing remarks were alarming. I was sent home with instructions to do nothing but sit on the sofa for the rest of the day, and I wasn't tempted to disobey. (Perfect convalescent book: Diana Wynne Jones Enchanted Glass).
Better today, though still very sore.
Over the weekend, though, it was painful enough that first thing on Monday morning I called the dentist and explained the situation. Once we had established that this definitely was just a cold (I had done a covid test and it was negative) there was no problem about an appointment for lunchtime the same day.
THe interesting thing is that apparently toothache can indeed be a symptom of a cold: since both colds and teeth put pressure on the sinuses, they can interact in a painful way.
This was not all that was going on in my case, though: a filling had been more than chipped, it had been dislodged, and since the filling was the only thing holding the tooth together, it had broken in two. There was no alternative but extraction, and the good (?) news was that she could do it right now.
I do not remember when I last had a tooth out. It has certainly happened, I have gaps in my mouth as evidence. But I have no memories of it, and perhaps this is just as well. The process was not painful in itself, but it was one of the longer 20-minutes of my life, and the constant reassuring and soothing remarks were alarming. I was sent home with instructions to do nothing but sit on the sofa for the rest of the day, and I wasn't tempted to disobey. (Perfect convalescent book: Diana Wynne Jones Enchanted Glass).
Better today, though still very sore.
