Dentists don't actually "pull" teeth out

Last year I had a root canal which in itself was a very unfortunate experience. About a month ago that tooth started to hurt a little bit and continued to get worse until this past Tuesday when any pressure on it caused horrible pain throughout my mouth. I gave in and went to the dentist even though everything in me told me not to. But none of the horrible scenarios I pictured could have prepared me for walking out of the dentist's office two hours later with a gaping hole in my mouth.

Did you know that when a dentist says he is going to pull your tooth out, he actually means that he is going to hammer away at it, breaking off piece by piece until the tooth is gone? Well, I discovered that the word "pull" is just a nice way of describing a horrendous thing.

The good news is that I have the strongest bones in my mouth that the dentist has ever seen and this is apparently good for the rest of my teeth. The bad news is that because my bones are so strong, he had to do quite a bit of damage to get the tooth out.

I walked out of the dentist's office after two hours, sat on my motorbike, called Rachel and just started to cry. It was very sad. The dentist that I would feel better in no time. Unfortunately when a tooth is pulled, the blood in the hole is supposed to clot and cover the hole which eventually allows it to heal. Well, my blood did not clot and I have been back to the dentist two more times this week. My mouth is infected and it hurts. It is amazing how pain in my mouth can affect my whole life.

It only cost me 1000baht (about $26) to have to tooth pulled and it is going to cost me another 50,000baht (about $1335) to finish the work and get an implant. I have no idea where I am going to get that kind of money. I guess that this is where trusting God comes in.