The incessant high pitch of the drill is whining in my ear….Sort of like 100 mosquitos on steroids. Then the burning bone smell hits my nose. The drill is working it’s way into my tooth, and for the next hour or so, I’ll be sitting there with the dentist and his assistant, getting a root canal.  

The day started with a 7:50AM appointment at my dentist’s office. I’d been having some mild pain off and on with a tooth and finally went to see my dentist, DR M____, who is originally from India. At about 8:15, after X-rays and tests, she informs me that I have a cracked tooth, need a root canal, and by the way, could lose the tooth. They give me a referral to a local Endodontist (dental specialist) and then call to set up the appointment for me. Oh…wait a second…if I’m free right now, they have an appointment available in 45 minutes at 9AM. Can I make that? Sure, but it’s at least 30 miles, it’s rush hour, and I might be a few minutes late. No problem. They will hold the spot for me.

I drive in the morning traffic, which is not moving, and amazingly, I don’t care. Who wants to be early for a root canal? I arrive a bit after 9, and they get me in pretty quickly. The dental assistant, N____ , who is originally from Nepal, takes new X-rays. The Endodontist, DR N_____, who is originally from Iran, informs me that yep, the tooth is dead, there is infection, the infection goes into the gum, there is a crack, and I need a root canal. I ask if they can do it today. Let’s check, he says. So we walk up to the front desk, and there’s an appointment open at 1:15PM. OK, I’ll take it. Then the DR says, “You know what? Hang around. I think my next appointment will go quick, and maybe I can sneak you in”.



So, I wait there. And sure enough, about 10:15, DR H comes out and says, “let’s do this”, and back we go….Oral sedative, Novocain, a dental dam and the drilling starts. Then comes the interesting part. They switch to very, very small drills (approximately .5mm I think) to start going into the root canals themselves. One drill, then flush and on to the next drill which is .05mm bigger. Drill, flush, and onto the next drill which is also .05mm bigger than the last one. Another set of X-rays – did they get everything?  Yep.  

In the background there’s music playing. The soundtrack to my root canal includes The Boss, McCartney, The Temptations, Van Morrison, Dylan, and wait a minute…is that Bread?!? “….And I would give anything I own….I’d give up my life, my heart, my home….Just to have you, back again…” Suddenly the pain to my ears is much worse than anything in my mouth. This is an ear worm that I won’t get rid of for days…..

Finally they clean all of the root canals out with antiseptic and start filling them in. It was sort of fun to watch the little puffs of smoke come out of my mouth. Next, a bit of sponge, then they put in a temp filling. Suddenly Doctor N_____ is coming at me with a pair of pliers, and for a brief second, I flash on Laurence Olivier in the movie Marathon Man (…”Is it safe”?), but the vision passes. He is using the pliers to remove the dental dam. With that, we are done for the day.

I look at the clock and it’s about noon. I still need to get a permanent cap at a later date, but amazingly, 4 hours after I started the day at a different dental office 30-some miles away, the work is done, and I’m on my way to recovery. True, my wallet is a bit lighter, but I could hardly have asked for better service, or a better outcome. The only real damage appears to be that the song by Bread, Everything I Own, is still floating around in my brain.

***

***Special thank you to N_____ the dental assistant, for taking the photo of my tooth half way through the procedure. (She didn’t act like I was tooooo weird for asking).  Incidentally, she recently graduated from Georgetown, and plans to go to school to become a dentist next year.