Canadutch
Yesterday was dooms day. The day I had to go to the dentist… and what a day it was! I was so nervous and by 12pm I was sure I was going to be sick.
I had my appointment at 12:30pm and after about a 15 minute wait I was brought in by a dental assistant who really didn’t seem very keen on speaking English. I can speak Dutch but with things like this I prefer to speak English so there is no miscommunication.
She wanted to do some x-rays and took me around the corner to this weird little room. She put this thing in my mouth that looked like a square piece of plastic and told me to close my mouth. The problem was, I couldn’t close it. The weird thing was sticking into the roof of my mouth and if I closed any further it was going to break the skin. She didn’t care though, as I shook my head, grabbed her wrists and tried to get her to take it out so I could explain… she just kept insisting that I close and grabbed my chin and shoved my mouth closed.
My first taste of blood of the day, great. The plastic jabbed into the roof of my mouth, cutting it just as I expected it would and I was so pissed. When she finally took the thing out of my mouth I was so angry I shouted ‘JESUS CHRIST THAT THING CUT MY MOUTH!’. I was so angry with how she dealt with me, knowing I was nervous (I told her when I first went in), I don’t think shoving things in my mouth and forcing it closed was quite the way to do things.
I touched the roof of my mouth to check the damage and got dizzy when it came out covered in blood.
She was nicer after I screamed and waved my bloody finger at her… but by that time it didn’t matter. I was a nervous wreck. If getting a stupid x-ray, which I’ve had done at dentists 100 times in my life back in Canada, could be SUCH an ordeal then what else could I expect?
This is where it got REALLY humiliating. I didn’t see that chick again, but when I went back into the office in the dentist chair and the dentist walked in I BURST into tears. I wanted to die, I was so embarrassed.
Thankfully the dentist was really nice and understanding. I’m sure he and everyone else in the office heard the commotion that went on with me and his assistant and it said right on my file that I was a nervous patient… so he was very sweet and just chatted with me until I calmed down.
He assured me that the stories of the Dutch dentists not using any anesthetic was completely untrue and if there was any kind of procedure that needed to be done, he’d make sure I wouldn’t feel a thing. That was reassuring and a good thing because as it turned out that broken tooth in the back of my mouth needed to be removed. He made an appointment for 5:30pm for me to come back to have it out.
I was so embarrassed, shaken and angry (with the assistant) that I walked all the way home. I wore my summer shoes and apparently my feet needed to toughen up again because they were bloody when I got home. Good grief, this was turning into a wonderful day indeed!
Xander was home to take me to my 2nd appointment of the day. I was frozen and the tooth came out… in pieces. As he was trying to pull it the decayed portion of the tooth broke free of the roots so he had to do some serious digging to get the roots out. This was most uncomfortable, not because I could feel anything where he was digging, but because it was far back in my mouth and my lips were being stretched, jabbed into my teeth and cut and they weren’t frozen. It hurt like a bitch!
I survived though. Now with a cut in the roof of my mouth, a bruised lip on the outside, cuts on the inside and a massive hole where my tooth once was. It’s over. I have no other cavities and don’t have to visit the dentist again for 6 months, THANK GOD!!
I kept the tooth of course, because I’m a total sicko. It was freakin HUGE and nasty. Look how MASSIVE that root is! That is part of what was up inside my gum. I’m sure the tip must have almost reached my eyeball.
The tooth broke years ago and has been rotting away since… after seeing it I can understand why it was so damn sore.
I contemplated putting the rest of the pics in this post for shock value but it wasn’t worth the whining I’d probably get about it because it really is kind of gross and bloody.
So, if you want to see the rest, you can click the links and not blame me if you are grossed out because it’s your own damn fault.
This is the rotten part of the tooth that was actually inside my mouth. The back end had broken off years ago and it’s been rotting steadily since. You can see the black part on the left hand side, that’s what was left of the filling that was in there since I was a kid. The other brown/black spots are decayed areas. Gross huh? That disgustingness was actually in my MOUTH!
This is the entire tooth in pieces. I knew molars were huge but I didn’t realize that they were like icebergs. You only see a small portion of them above the surface. I showed the pics to a friend and he asked if I as a Sabertooth Tiger, you really must wonder with those massive roots. Even the dentist commented on it.
So that’s it. The tooth is out and now I just have to heal. I’m SO glad it’s over.
I’m actually a dental assistant in canada, and I would never do
what she did! I always bend the film so it doesn’t cut the patients mouth,
or use a smaller holder. Nervous people at my work are very common,
and I like talking to them, and making them feel more comfortable.
I’m glad you’ve got it all over with though :)
I should take a pic of my 4 teeth I had removed some years back. I had to have 5 teeth pulled at once. 4 were my wisdom teeth the other one was one that broken. All of them were far enough back that I did not need any type of bridge. I still have the teeth, they are evil looking!
Oh you poor thing. I used to quite like going to the dentist in the UK (seriously) but find the seeming lack of care for patient comfort in Holland very scary indeed. I endured two painful cleanings and heard other horror stories mainly involving children before coming to my senses (dentistry is not supposed to be painful) and changing practice. It’s now better but still not perfect.
But then what do you expect in a country that denies women pain relief in labour? Maybe Maxima’s childbirth choices will help change all that a bit like Queen Victoria in England in ancient times!
I broke one of my back molars too, and had to have it removed. I know what you had to go through. It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever gone through…and I’ve given birth twice. LOL The freezing didn’t work, but I didn’t realize that until the dentist had already started pulling. I felt EVERYTHING. I thought I was going to pass out. Thankfully it all came out in one piece. If I ever had to do that again, I would make sure they put me to sleep first. I’ve had a root canal, and that was nothing compared to the extraction. It makes me feel all funny just thinking about it. Glad it’s over for you…and me. LOL :-)
I once kept my big toenail that fell off so I guess I can’t comment on your level of weirdness. It sat on my desk for months until my mom finally got fed up and chucked it on me. I was kind of glad she did. It was really gross but throwing it away was something I could bring myself to do.
Glad to hear it went good. Dentists aren’t always scary :)
That chick was WAY out of line. That pisses me off.
And yes, you are very weird for keeping the tooth LOL
Glad to hear it’s over, and sorry to hear about the bit(h assistant. God she must really be stun, urgh.
Good for you for not cancelling, like I had done a few to many times lol. Hence the reason for having 3 teeth removed.
wow, those pics are just fascinating to me. I have a tooth that is often painful when I eat food and such. I better go in to the dentist soon so I don’t have to pull it out I suppose. :/
But it’s good that it’s over now!
What an ordeal. And what a bitch of a dental assistant! Man, I don’t even know her, and I hate her.
Yay! You’re done for 6 months! I didn’t want to say anything to frighten you, but I had a bad tandarts experience when we were in NL. That place scared the living hell out of me after that. I ended up living with a little bit of tooth pain until I made a trip back to the US to visit family.
No wonder they had to dig. I’m sure the roots of that tooth were wrapped around your cheekbone.
I’m not sure how I stumbled onto your blog, but I am a child of dutch immigrants who moved to Canada, so I’m having fun reading. I had to send you my own dentist story after reading yours. Mine is less bloody but I also started crying at the dentist. Absolutely humiliating.