Toothache

I went to the dentist today.  I'm good friends with my dentist; he and his wife hosted a baby shower for us, but I hate going to see him in a professional capacity.  He is a fine dentist, in fact he is better than most I've seen.  I still don't like going to see him.  I also don't like going to see the doctor or the mechanic; it's like I'm admitting there is something wrong that I can't resolve on my own.

I know how ridiculous that sounds.  Of course I don't believe for a second that I should be able to fix everything that ails me.  I recognize that it is a point of maturity and of strength to seek out professionals with the education, training and experience to not only fix what ails me, but fix it quickly.  Still, there is a part of me that doesn't want to admit I need fixing in the first place.

About a week ago, I felt a twinge in my jaw.  It didn't last long, but it was enough to signal that something might be off.  The next day it went away, so I wrote it off to poor brushing that day.  It came back though, stronger.  By yesterday, the pain was bad enough that I called my dentist at home at 8:00 p.m. or so.  I classified it not as an emergency, but a dental crisis.  (In my mind, crisis is less than emergency.)   He was able to squeeze me in this afternoon.

We did x-rays, tapped every tooth, did a cold test in which he froze something with a chemical to see how my teeth would react to extreme cold.  My dentist even asked me if I was stressed enough to be grinding my teeth in my sleep.  He ruled out everything tooth-related. 

We settled on a sinus infection.  I guess I had suspected this all along, but I wanted to rule out any problems with my teeth.  I'm now on antibiotics... which if I were smart enough, I would have started a week ago.