Heather in Paradise

I interrupt your wait for my 2nd HS reunion post and more Halloween costume pics to bring you this “normal life” post.

I discovered that I had an infection in a tooth I’d had a root canal in over 20 years ago. There wasn’t any pain or blatant signs of infection, so I didn’t notice it until it had gotten so bad the tooth had to be pulled. I then put it off for a month, since I had my vacation to go on and my HS reunion to attend and I didn’t want to go looking all toothless and country. My sister called me “vain,” and I agree with her assessment completely, but want to add that in my opinion there are enough toothless people in Lake County, IL without my adding to their ranks.

Tuesday after work, I went to see my dentista, Dr. Jorge Armenta, whose office is on Avenida 30 and the corner of Calle 6. Dr. Armenta has been my dentist since I moved here and is absolutely wonderful, very gentle and soothing. His office is small, but he goes out of his way to accommodate your needed appointment times and is available by cell phone almost anytime.

Pointing to my left 2nd rear molar for the last time. It had a porcelain crown on it that closely matched the color of my other teeth, so imagine my shock when I saw what the “underneath” parts of a tooth look like. I couldn’t bring myself to take pictures of that ugly brownish-yellow thing.

During the 6 minutes or so I sat in Dr. Armenta’s waiting room, my nervous ass must have read every word on that restaurant billboard across the street about 324 times.

Dr. Armenta, doing his GQ pose as I demanded. He’s handsome and kind.

He did another x-ray just so I could show it to you on my blog. I don’t know if you can tell, but the infection ate away a lot of the roots of the capped tooth, as well as some of the surrounding bone in my jaw. When Dr. Armenta finally got the tooth out, it pulled all of the infection with it, and since he knows how fascinated I am with gross things, he showed me the pus sac and everything. It was cool, but then I felt a little faint and had to lie back down.

The executioner posing for a photo with me just before the beheading.

I’m not that happy at the dentist; even for cleanings I grip my hands together very tightly. Michael was amused to see that during an extraction, I also hold my feet at weird angles and move them around from side to side.

The procedure itself wasn’t too bad. I had so much Novocaine I couldn’t feel my mouth for the next 4 hours. Dr. Armenta is so deft with the shots that I never felt a thing. He told me that he’s so good at them because in dental school, he and his best friend practiced on each other over and over again.

The worst thing about the extraction was the sort of ripping sound it made when he pried the tooth out of my jaw. I wasn’t too keen on the “shaving of the jawbone” part, either, but in almost no time, it was done and I was home with my painkillers and antibiotics.

Dr. Armenta is easily the best dentist I’ve ever had and I’ve never had a bad experience in his dental chair. Maybe because Dr. Armenta is not just my dentist, he’s also my good friend, Jorge:

In addition to dental school, I’m pretty sure he also attended Master Barbecuing School. Thanks, Jorge, I’ll see you on Saturday!

(*this is what time the Chinese man went to the dentist)