The Day Draws Near

One week from today I go under the dental equivalent of the knife to have my implant done. It has been a very long haul tooth-wise, as I trudge through the slow, lengthy steps to the culmination of this past year of toothful disruption.

My oral surgeon, a very conservative, slightly eggheaded, albeit nice, man, likes to remind me every chance he gets of how I am one of his more nervous patients. He has put this idea forth at every one of my appointments. I understand that dentists must get tired of people whining and complaining about how this hurts and that stings, however, it is possible that he has been desensitized to the fact that when someone is presenting herself for IV sedation and complete trust in a man with whom the only thing she has in common is the fact that he performs surgery on her front tooth and gums, she tends to be skittish!

For my last procedure, a gum graft, I asked that I be kept in a "twilight" after the initial sedation for the bulk of the surgery. What I didn't count on was that my mouth would be propped open enough for a family to go caving in it and that my hands would be strapped down. Something had been placed on my neck - I still don't know what it was - and it was bothering me enough for me to try to tell the doctor, but with my mouth and hands in that state all I could do was emit guttural "AAAAHHH AHHH's" and listen to him tell me to stop trying to talk. So, this time I will just stay asleep the whole time.

Please say a prayer for me. I keep trying to keep in perspective what I am facing: it's not like I'm having an arm removed, or even more than one implant - I've heard of people having whole mouths full. Still, as the day draws near, I find my stomach in flutters.