Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...

I have to say that my pain threshold has been getting a workout here lately. Any more of this and I think I'd even be able to watch that scene in Marathon Man where Laurence Olivier drills a nifty hole in one of Dustin Hoffman's healthy teeth. How did it get to this point? I don't know. I guess I don't trust the dentist since every time I go I come away with a cold sore and/or the promise of expensive restoration. I really should find a new one. I keep telling myself that the pain is a result of a cold and nothing more. Even a handful of ibuprofen with an antihistamine chaser hasn't taken the edge off today though. The bone deep ache is now accompanied by sharp stabbing pains, the high pitched whistle of tinnitus and the sensation of my ears popping. Fun, fun, fun. I'd love a syringe of novacaine administered directly to the base of the skull, as long as the brain stem still functions enough for me to breathe without thinking.
I just had panoramic xrays taken by Sweeney, right before she took two or three layers of bone away with her germ riddled dental pick. A faint shadow appeared where an abscess might be beginning to form but that's on the other side of my mouth. Nothing wrong there. I've got a mental image of the dentist informing me that I'll need a root canal. He can barely contain his glee. His nerdy microscope goggles start to fog up with excitement. His wife at the front desk stops flipping casually through her Pottery Barn catalog at this bit of good news and frantically begins circling the items on her wish list in earnest. No matter the cost. Those material goods are the detritus of my very own blood and tears. Teeth don't heal. What can you do? Need a new television? Tsk, tsk, tsk. The number 18 mandibular second molar doesn't look good. We're gonna need to pop off that gold crown and dig around there some more. What's this? Hmmm... that maxillary second premolar will have to go. It doesn't hurt you say? Well, it will.
He starts humming the tune "I'm in the money".
I can feel my pain threshold growing. This isn't too bad. Not like it's childbirth or anything. Besides, chewing is overrated.