After a long time of suffering on and off, Ice finally persuaded me to go to a dentist last night. I went, and after some poking and prodding, they referred me to an oral surgeon for emergency surgery, which led to the removal of two teeth this morning. The teeth removed were my wisdom tooth and the one next to it - there was a major infection under them and they were both too far gone to save, so out they came. Hopefully this will mean an end to the dizzy lightheaded spells I've been getting for quite some time too - apparently the abscess-like infection would occasionally 'burst' and the result would be poisoning my blood which led to the dizzyness and nausea etc. Yummy huh?

IceQueen took the day off so she could be there for me, which was awesome - I certainly needed the moral support - dentists and needles freak me out. The last (and only) time I went to a dentist here I reacted to the epinephrine that they mixed with the lidocaine and I ended up unconscious and no dental work was done at all. The dentist today said that the epi and some other stuff also contains adrenalin which increases the heart rate, and that can cause some people to lose consciousness. This time they actually put me to sleep first rather than just give a local, which was much preferred in my opinion (heck, if they tried to just give me a local I'd probably go unconscious anyway, so..) . My mouth is still mostly numb at the moment and I have some painkillers for when the numbness wears off so hopefully it wont be a problem.

I have another tooth badly chipped - actually I chipped it years ago in NZ, had it capped, then broke off the capped part back in November 2002, which I think led to the unconscious drama mentioned above. That tooth can still be saved, so I have to go back to the normal dentist in a couple of weeks to have a root canal done along with a bunch of fillings over two separate appointments. I guess it's been pretty much 20 years since I went near a dentist (other than that one cap back in NZ years ago), so I should be thankful it's not worse than it is. As Ice keeps reminding me, once it's done it's done, and I'll feel a lot better for it. Thanks sweetness.