Things that cut into my yarn budget: The Dentist Part Two

So last week I had the heck drilled out of the upper left side of my mouth. Today I had the lower right side of my mouth drilled. Now I'm sore on both sides. At least I'm symmetrical.

But actually I'm not. While the dentist did grind down last week's fillings (which I think is the reason why I'm still sore about a week and a half after my last appointment) I think the same thing needs to be done on the right side.

You know when the dentist makes you bite down on the little piece of purple paper, looks for the purple spots and grinds them down? That's important. I know because I've had problems with this several times. And after a while, dentists usually say it's my imagination, and finally listen when I come back a couple of weeks later in pain. At least this dentist is better. I think the problem was that I was too numb to tell (especially today.) I could barely find the paper to bite down. I suspected this would happened and asked if I could come back if there were any problems. He said to come in tomorrow, because he's about to go on vacation for a week. And I'd know as soon as I got the feeling back in my mouth if it was going to be a problem.

It's a problem.

I feel that telltale pressure on the right side when I bite down that eventually turns into pain (aside from the giant-Novocaine-needle-in-my-gum pain that lasts for a couple of days.

But it doesn't hurt as much as my pocket book. $139 for this visit. I used the $9 I had left on the MasterCard Gift Card I won at work, and the other $130 came from my bank account, canceling out my bonus and then some. At least Ibuprofen is cheap.

And the dentist recognized me right away as the knitter. He said he actually knitted a bag once in shop class (yeah, I think he was confused.) He was amazed at how knitters can get clothing to be the right size. I said "practice," which isn't much of an answer. (There are entire books devoted to that topic. It's a bit hard to explain briefly to the non-knitter.) A little later I realized that a brief explanation of gauge would have probably shed some light on the subject, but by then I had a mouth full of tools.

He compared it to making vinyl flooring fit in a room. I think that would be easier than making a sweater fit. But then again, you can't uncut vinyl flooring, but you can unravel a sweater.

And more bad news. The tooth with the hole I mentioned in the other entry? The dentist thinks he may have "nicked" the nerve because the hole was so deep. He said there was a 50/50 chance that I would need a root canal. I would know if I started feeling more tooth pain in a month or two.

In less painful news, there are only 1,043 people ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list.