I don’t know about you, but nothing is quite like anticipation. Whether it’s the feeling right before a kiss, taking a plunge down a roller coaster, a first date or even just getting ready for a super good dinner, there is a certain excitement that goes along with anticipating.

Last night, during my leaders’ meeting, I noticed that one of my teeth started to hurt (#19 as I would later find out). I discounted it since earlier this week I had a runny nose and sometimes if something is in your sinuses it can affect your teeth. However the pain woke me up at night and I had a hard time falling asleep after that. By the time I awoke the pain had intensified significantly and I could barely clinch my teeth. Because of this, I only ate soup for breakfast, but even then, the pain was literally making me feel sick. So, at the urging of my brother and mother I called my regular dentist. Unfortunately, he is at some dumb dentists’ conference in San Fran so he was unavailable. He did, however, leave a number to call in case it was an emergency. The pain told me it was, so I called Dr. Imanaka.

Dr. Imanaka seemed like a nice man. Like when my dentist retires he might be someone to consider…anyway, he asked me a few questions and poked around in my mouth a bit. He then took some X-Rays and had me wait. Then he said the words no one ever wants to hear a dentist say, “Scott, we have a problem here.” Great, just great. What a way to start my Wednesday. Then he said the second worst set of words a dentist can say, “you’ll probably need a root canal.” Now, I’ve heard all sorts of horror stories about root canals so needless to say, I wansn’t very excited. I do recall my mom saying that she went to someone really good and to give them a call. You know things aren’t going your way when that particular dentist is also at the conference in the mainland, so I guess I was stuck with whoever was left.

Back to the anticipation part. It was about a five minute drive from Dr. Imanaka’s office to the place where I was to receive my root canal. Let me tell you about how long five minutes can really be. Then they make you wait and fill out forms while in the background all you can here is the sounds of drilling (I guess since these places specialize in root canals that’s all they do). Then they strap you in a chair and take more X-Rays only to confirm what you already know, you need a root canal. Augh! After more poking, he took out this horse needle and gave me a series of shots. He used two syringes because in his words I had a big jaw. After a few minutes he came back and asked if I could feel anything. I poked my tooth and still felt pain. Yup, still pain. More needles to follow…

Then the part that I was fearing the most. The drill. I could hear it and I could also feel my heart beating faster. My knuckles were also pretty white since I was gripping my hands tightly together. The whir of the drill was killing me. I had been drilled enough to know that I don’t like being drilled and pain was a concern of mine. Like Pavlov’s dog, I had been conditioned to fear the sound of a dentist’s drill. I was dying.

But, and here’s where the story gets very anti-climactic, I really couldn’t feel a thing until he got to the infected part of my tooth. I winced and he must have picked up on it because he injected me some more and finished up. Now I’m not saying that I would like to have root canals done more often, but as far as dental procedures go, they’re not so bad. My bigger concern now is that half my face is numb and I am slurring my speech. I hope to God that I’m not drooling all over myself but I can’t really tell. Hopefully in a few hours It’ll wear off and I’ll be able to eat again.