The dentist extracted my tooth today. The laughing gas helped but did not live up to its name. I’ve never had a local anesthetic before, so that was an interesting experience. Drinking water and only feeling it on the left side of my lips and the left side of my mouth was odd. The sensation is starting to return to the right side of my face and the soreness is setting in. My remaining teeth are still tingling.

The actual extraction might have taken a minute. Apparently there was an abscess at the base that made the process a little bit easier. The dentist said there’d be pressure, and said there should be no pain, but neglected to mention that it would feel like he was trying to pry my jaw off the rest of my skull. I worried that he might dislocate my jaw, but then he announced the tooth was out. I asked to see it; the nurse showed me my badly broken molar, and that was that. The nurse turned off the nitrous and turned up the oxygen to clear my head, and half an hour later I drove away.

Jesus, that jaw hinge hurts. Anyhow, an ode to my lost tooth, after Tennyson:

Come, my friend,
‘Tis not too late to seek one last feast.
Chomp down, and sitting well in order mash
The sweet potatoes; for my purpose holds
To move on to a ribeye, and stone crab
Dipped in hot drawn butter, ‘til I am full.
It may be that they overcook the steak:
It may be as bloody and as tender
As the curs’d heel of the great Achilles.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
You are not now that strength which in old days
Tore beef and pork, that which you are, you are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by sweets and rot, but strong in will
To munch, to gnash, to grind, and not to yield.

…

The sensation is now officially back. They gave me a prescription for Lorcet Plus. I hope it does its job.

…

And now the only restaurant that delivers mozzarella & tomato salads to my place tells me they don’t make them anymore. Awful spring break.