About This Dentistry, Part III

Many of you have been asking for an exact location of Dra. Monica Sanjur’s office. My next post will contain a photo of her storefront and a more exact description, but for now suffice it to say it’s on the same side of the street as Romero’s and up the block from them. (“Up”, meaning, towards the mountains.)

Anyway, my last encounter with the “Joys of Dentistry” was two days ago, at two p.m. and lasted for two hours. The title of this little drama? “Root Canal!”

Dra. Sanjur brought in another specialist, a Dra. Mirna — another woman. Wow I’m beginning to wonder if there are any male dentists in this town. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” I love my lady doctors and feel so comfortable in their presence. Even when a thorough cleaner-outer like Dra. Mirna is rooting around in my roots! This particular specialist loves her tunes and loves to sing to the music. She paused early on and asked me if her singing will bother me. “Doc, if it makes you do a better job, then sing away!” I responded.

For two hours, I was laid flat down in the chair so she could “do her thang” while singing away to some decent Latin American pop. Just like the periodontist, she let me know the first pain would be the injection of the novocaine. And howdy — this was heavy duty stuff, so much so that my eye got numb! I’ve been working novocaine out of my eye for the last two days!

She showed me how the infection had gotten to the very end of the upper palate tooth root and would have to “go deep” to get it all. So, for two hours, she cleaned the infection out of the tooth and it’s roots. At one point I was convinced she had dug a trench up to my temple. At that time I manged to eke out through all the tools coming out my mouth: “Tjqphtt olajrje.” Thank gosh the assistant understood me and translated for the doc: “Tengo dolor” — (“I have pain.”) Dr. Mirna stopped everything and gave me more novocaine after I informed her it was a 4 to 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

How I managed it, I don’t know, but I actually fell asleep with her hands in my mouth. My own snore woke me up and I started giggling. She said, in perfect English, “Oh, don’t worry, you’re not the first patient to fall asleep with my hands in their mouths.”

It finally ended and a temporary filling was put in place. This will last until my next day in the seat: Wednesday, when we put in a post and finally the crown. (Yeah, “we”, like I have anything to do with it. Except to hand over cash.) Oh, right — the cost for the two hour root canal with the specialist? $250. Most Excellent!

I’ll talk to you after next Wednesday.

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