Monday, June 9, 2008

いいたい

I'm freaking out a little. Like a lot a little. Today I had my second trip to the dentist. My first visit was fine. It was all surprises, I didnt know what they were doing, but it was nothing too bad. They took some photos, x-rays, scraped around a little. Gave me a print out of all my teeth with cute little kanji next to some of them.

Today when I went the dentist tried to explain what was going to happen. It took five minutes for him to translate "tartar." He spent a lot of time explaining that the dental technician would be teaching me to brush, putting dye in my mouth, blah blah. Then he told me they'd fixing my three cavities. He drew pictures, I had no idea what he was talking about, but Im starting to put the pieces together.

The plump little technician did teach me to brush, dyed my teeth pink, and scraped all the bottom ones (I guess the top ones will be cleaned next week?). Then she took five minutes explaining that we'd be moving chairs.

I followed her.

Then the freak out began. Little drill bits sitting on a table beside my chair, waiting to go in my mouth. They sat me down and poked at a few teeth. She asked, "kore? kore?" She was asking which tooth to fill! I hesitantly agreed on one where I thought I must have a cavity, you know, a tooth in the back that's hard to brush thoroughly.

They injected me with one of those big ass needles, which was fine except, in America I used to get three needles for a filling. I would ask the dentist back home to keep shooting me up until I couldnt feel my fingers. Here, I didnt really know what to do. I felt like I should trust the dentist and I can't say to her, "Do you think that's enough or should you give me a bit more?" It would have to be a big gesture of me shouting, "DRUG MORE DRUG NEEDLE MORE MORE MORE" and pointing to my mouth while mimicking a needle. I didnt feel like going through the theatrics. So, I trusted the dentist and the single shot of Novocaine.

Fuck, it hurt. I could feel the drill digging around in my nerves. I kept stopping the dentist, sitting up at taking breaks, but she never shot me up again, just spread some more oral numbing crap on me.

I started crying a little. Imagine someone digging around in your mouth and you have absolutely no way to communicate with them. It was like a nightmare.

There's a chance I have a root canal next week. That's what I've deciphered from the memory of the drawing the dentist did for me. He explained they'll "cut" my tooth (and drew a picture of them chopping off the top) and then "reform" it with metal. I asked if I'd have a big ugly metal tooth, he said "no" just a dot. I'm confused. My tooth isnt in that bad of shape, it's not green or anything. But he pointed to a cloud in an x-ray and said that needed to be fixed.

I may die. Just a heads up.

21 comments:

switch said...

Please don't die yet Jeannett-o!

ElizT said...

Take some native speaker with you!
Essential. Bribe them if necessary.

ElizT said...

[Sorry; that was bossy.]

d said...

if this is how exciting the dentist is, i can't wait to hear what happens when you go get your jiggly bits checked out.

Jeannetto said...

ewww! what are jiggly bits?

Frederik Jurk said...

So it seems you can´t really disagree with the doctor. You´re entirely in his hands now. I´m sorry.

DRUG NEEDLE DRUG NEEDLE MORE MORE MORE has a very nice sound to it!

d said...

oh. i think you know.

LSL said...

Holy Mary Mother of God! Yikes! I went to a blind massage therapist there once, and then another massage therapist who was about 800 years old and beat the shit out of me, but I never went to a local doctor. Um, I suggest taking a very patient friend.

Also, I don't think d knows very much about jiggly bits. This is just a hunch.

Afreud of Myself said...

Awful, awful, awful. This is like something out of Marathon Man.

You need to make sure you go in with a sign next time (written in Japanese) that says: "I've got a really low pain threshold so please inject me until I dribble!"

You know what the Japanese are like (probably better than me and the cliche' I'm just about to emit here): it's all fucking stone-eyed, teeth gritting (only you can't cos they're drilling) stoicism. The fuckers ENJOY PAIN, big time. More sado-masochistic porn in Japan than anywhere else in the world. Fact.

They're all fucking weird.

I'm getting quite worked up here, I guess you might have noticed that by now.

A little bit of racism always goes down well on a fresh post, innit.

LSL said...

Actually, afreud of myself has a good idea - I had my Japanese friends write a few different notes for me to be pulled out of my purse in different circumstances. The one I used the most said, "I am a vegetarian. May I please have something that doesn't have beef, chicken, or fish in it?" With the right about of summimasen's and gomennasai's, that worked really well for me.

ElizT said...

[Actually, Afreudofhimself has ideas the way a fruit cake has raisins; weighty and probably good.]

Brian Kennedy said...

Please don't die yet...I want you to teach me some Japanese...oh by the way, beware of Japanese dentists. They will try to use experimental drugs on you if you're not careful!

Steve said...

Hey Jeannetto. I am going to the post-office on Saturday (I only go once a year, so I need to make it a REALLY FUCKING GOOD TRIP) and was thinking of posting you something. (No really, really, I will, God help me I WILLLLLL!) Can you send me your current address.

Steve said...

Oh and I was thinking today: I miss seeing your art, I REALLY missing see ing your stuff. Are you still drawing and if so, when can we see it. I MISS IT, GOD-FUCKING-DAMNIT!

Steve said...

Not that you're not a multi-talented wordsmith too (don't get me wrong...)

switch said...

Happy Birthday, Jeannett-o!

I think you ought to give that dude, Lacan a chance. Though his name makes me think of Lanacane; some kind of itch ointment my grandfather used to keep in the kitchen cupboard.

ElizT said...

Happy Birthday Jeanette!

Anonymous said...

happy birthday and please ask for drugs next time

red-handed said...

Oh, you rookie. I once had a root canal where the dentist thought he had removed all the roots, so he proceeded to drill away ... right on top of a live root. Watch Marathone Man and you'll feel immensely better about yourself.

red-handed said...

I mean: Marathon Man.

Anonymous said...

Wow, scary sh@#**t!! Are you sure you can trust these dentists... man...my nightmare as well.
Hang in there!!!