Dental anguish

· rants ·

I went to the dentist yesterday, and found out that — as I had feared — I will have to have my rogue upper-left wisdom tooth removed. I've already had both lower wisdom teeth out as I don't have enough room on my lower jaw for even the full adult set of teeth, but I was hoping that I might get away with the upper one. Being the kind of free-thinking, radical, out-there tooth that it is, this wisdom tooth seems to have decided that growing straight down is for squares, and that jutting out at a jaunty angle would be much more groovy. It's now poking into my cheek in a somewhat uncomfortable way, and generally making a nuisance of itself when it comes to brushing the other teeth.

The dentist breezily said that she could 'slip the tooth out' very quickly, but previous experience tells me nothing about the process is either easy or painless. What makes it all the more galling is the expense; I can afford it and still pay the rent, but if I'm going to spend £70 on anything, I would much rather blow it on something fun like a few nice meals out or some CDs — anything but a couple of days of intense pain and soup-eating.

I just thank my lucky stars that I don't have an exotic but complicated dental condition like sarah.