Now i'm no expert when it comes to the work of a professional dentist. I simply walk on in, have what needs to be done and leave knowing that the problem has been sorted. However, as i've learned in my most recent trip it appears that it doesn't always goes nice and dandy as one would hope. I went in for a Root Canal procedure where my gums were injected with anesthetic to numb one side of my face so the surgery could go without a hint of pain. Other than some discomfort the procedure itself went without a problem. To this day (Week 4) i'm happy with how it turned out but after a day or two whilst I was laying in bed recovering from dental pains I noticed one thing...a part of my face was still numb. For the entire first week I didn't take much notice of it, mainly because I was preoccuiped with trying to stop the pain. Then the second week rolled on by and I informed my dentist to which they said that the anesthetic they gave me may just be lasting longer for me and I should wait until the end of the week. The week ended and to my joy the dental pain finally disappeared, however, my numbness did not.
As some may imagine, I was getting rather worried at this point and the thoughts of "What exactly did they do to me?" popped into my mind. Week 3 started and I contacted my dentist again, they told me to come in. They took an X-ray of the side of my face where the Root Canal surgery was done but they could not find anything wrong, stating that the root was fine and everything seemed normal. They told me they would write a letter to a specialist and that I could only wait until they heard back from them.
Week 3 has almost finished and my dandy day became less dandy as my gums swelled up. Turns out I had an infection! Woo! I contacted my dentist...again, they gave me some antibiotics and a few days later the infection was gone. Talking between those two days was...interesting to say the least hah but what baffled me were several points such as how the X-Ray hadn't picked anything up and how an infection decides to pop up almost 3 weeks after the procedure.
Week 4! My face is still numb and i'm getting rather fed up of feeling unbalanced on one side of my face. Finally, the dentist receives a letter! Hazaar! I would be happy, however, instead of getting any sort of solution, the dentist sends me a lettet which I will quote, it may not be accurate but it may as well have said this:
"Dear Michael
We received a letter from the specialists and we are writing this letter to you to let you know that you will be receing a letter from the specists sometime in the next 2 weeks".
*Sigh* And thus ends this blog. My face is still numb as I type and I eagerly await an actual informal letter from the specialist.
Side note: If you have an appointment with a dentist and you've just finished reading this, don't worry hah This is very unlikely to happen, it's one of those "1 in 10000" kind of deals. I just happened to be the 1 :P