Thursday, December 04, 2008

The Simpsons: Featuring Mother Dear

Mother Dear has a sore tooth. It has been giving her trouble for some time and based on the dentist's advice, we've "let it go" until it becomes too sore to tolerate. That time is now.

We'll be going to an oral surgeon next week to have it removed. She has decay along the jawbone and because of unusual bone growth along the inside of her mouth (mandibular tori), doing a root canal or anything to save the tooth would be much too painful for what it would gain. As the dentist said, "The cure is worse than the disease."

Until we meet with the surgeon, she is on antibiotics to reduce the inflammation and get the infection under control. She also has a prescription for the pain. I've also gone to the store and got some Orajel to numb the area when the pain is at its worst.

The pain can be so acute that she goes into a fetal position and holds her jaw and cries, complaining about how it feels like there is a knife in her mouth and the pain is shooting back to her ear.

Touching it makes it hurt. So what does she do? Constantly touches it. When I tell her that she is only causing it to hurt by poking at it, I get that "Sure, it's always my fault" refrain I've recently been writing about.

The whole production reminds me of an episode of The Simpsons.

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