The woe continues

Clambered bravely onto dentist's chair yesterday, full of bravado and weak jokes, but my jocular mood wore off when he stretched a sheet of green latex across my face (for a moment I thought he'd turned into a CSI-style crazy murderer), cut a hole in it for my nose, another for my tooth and stretched it tight across my mouth on metal skewers so that I looked like Hannibal Lecter posing for a spearmint gum ad. It was, he said, to prevent the chemicals he was using affecting the teeth on either side. I think it was to prevent me coming out with any more lame jokes and pathetic whimpers.

The tooth was reopened and re-excavated. He found more infection and discovered the Uxbridge dentist had perforated the root. He told me my root canals were very twisty and scelerotic, i.e. closed up. He had to twist and screw his cleaning rod into it. Finally, after he'd had to give me two extra shots of novocaine, he refilled it and told me not to bite on it.

Unfortunately, when I got home and the anaesthetic had worn off, I discovered that part of the filling was connecting with my bottom teeth every time I closed my mouth, resulting in a nasty ja of pain. Now I can't chew, can't eat and can only slurp soup. Bang goes my proposed trip to Cornwall next week.Will this nightmare every end? The dentist says if this treatment doesn't work, he has a Plan B. I hope it is to take the bloody thing out at last.