Being done in by being hasty

Here’s a cautionary tale that will set your teeth on edge. Proceed with caution.

IN early August, I shared my tale of woe of another body part breaking down and needing fixing. That was my teeth.

I had undergone an extensive check with a prosthodontist, a specialist in restorative dentistry.

Dr Wong tentatively identified nine teeth that needed crowning.

Because of scheduling issues, I was back in the dentist chair only earlier this month to start the crowning work. But because we lost a month and I had travel plans for this month as well as October and November, I wanted to expedite the process.

And that was the start of my troubles. To prepare and to fully ascertain how many teeth needed crowning, Dr Wong had to check the teeth for decay and replace old worn-out fillings.

We started at 11am on a Sunday morning. I finally got off the chair at 7pm.

Looking back, I don’t know how I endured those eight hours.

I had several lidocaine injections in my gums to block pain signals at my nerve endings. Those jabs really hurt but the ensuing numbness was certainly why I could stand all the drilling done on 11 teeth.

Yes, you read it right. Eleven teeth!

Even with one or two fillings, my lips would dry up and feel the uncomfortable tension of stretching them to open up the mouth for the dentist to literally get in.

So I came prepared by bringing my own lip balm. Unfortunately, the balm didn’t stay on very long, despite repeated applications.

To ease the discomfort, Dr Wong inserted a bite block – a small, wedge-shaped piece of rubbery plastic or silicone – on one side my mouth.

By biting down gently on the block, I could rest my jaw muscles while still keeping my mouth open for Dr Wong to work on the teeth on the opposite side.

That helped for a while before my jaw felt like it was about to break at the hinges.

Dr Wong kept checking to see whether I was all right and I doggedly said yes.

After three hours or so, we took a Milo break. My doctor needed a bit of a pick-me-up and she also felt I needed a bit of glucose to prevent me from becoming hypoglycemic.

Fifteen minutes or so later, I was back in the chair and it was another injection into another part of the mouth and more drilling.

By that time, the plastic headrest became most uncomfortable as it kept slipping. The dental nurse then rolled up a blanket for my head and neck. That felt softer until it didn’t any more.

Every time there was a pause for Dr Wong to prepare something or change the drill, I would re-roll the blanket to plump it up again.

By the fifth hour, my neck was feeling quite stiff and my hands were beginning to feel numb. I wriggled my fingers and feet and arched my back to get some relief.

Despite the increasing discomfort, it never occurred to me to say stop. I just wanted all the fillings redone so that we could move on to the next stage.

By then, Dr Wong had identified the eight upper teeth and three lower ones that needed crowning.

Since I was travelling – I fly off tomorrow actually – she decided to do the crowning for the three lower teeth.

That meant shaving down the enamel from the top and sides of the teeth to make space for the crown to fit evenly. Next, she cemented a temporary acrylic crown on the shaved teeth while waiting for the lab to craft the permanent crowns based on the digital scan she had taken of the teeth. That was impressive technology.

They raised up my chair and told me to rinse my mouth. I felt drained but my ordeal was over. Or so I thought.

My next appointment with her was Monday to put in the permanent crowns as I was not keen to travel with the temporary ones for fear of them coming off. I was told it would take only an hour or so. Yay!

I was warned my teeth might hurt or feel sensitive before subsiding after a few days. Indeed, it was difficult to eat or drink anything hot or cold. But those eight hours lying flat gave me quite a bad backache a day later. At least my neck didn’t hurt.

I figured my back would settle given some rest. But three days later, something else happened. I felt a tingle at the corner of my right upper lip. In the past, that was the sign of the onset of a cold sore. I would dab a bit of Bonjela and it would go away.

But not this time. The sore got bigger and more painful. I suspected it was caused by my eight-hour long dental visit so I asked AI.

Sure enough, it said a cold sore after an extended dental visit was a common reaction. The physical and emotional strain I went through had reactivated the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) that was dormant in my body. My one and only full-blown cold sore at the same spot occurred some 30 years ago.

AI went on to explain that keeping my mouth wide open for eight hours placed immense physical stress on my lips, the corners of my mouth and the surrounding tissues. This “micro-trauma” was a direct wake-up call to the dormant virus.

Furthermore, the stress and exhaustion had temporarily weakened my immune system’s ability to keep the virus suppressed. Because the constant airflow and dental suction had severely dried out my lips, the skin barrier had been compromised, making it easier for a lesion to form.

Even the timeline fitted perfectly because the typical incubation or reactivation period for HSV-1 is around two to three days.

Unfortunately, I found this out and the proper treatment too late. I should have rushed out the moment I felt the tingle to buy a topical anti-viral cream containing acyclovir to nip it in the bud by stopping the virus from replicating.

I started applying the cream one day late. It must be done at least five times a day to constantly cover the sore and so far it has helped but by most accounts, it will take one to two weeks for full recovery.

I had to of course postpone the Monday dental appointment and now I will be travelling with temporary crowns, a cold sore, and a sore back. The latter still feels twingy after a week.

I have been wearing a face mask when I go out to hide the white anti-viral cream on the corner of my mouth. Looks like I will have to continue doing so on my trip. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is quite normal to be masked. But it is an added inconvenience and I have to be careful not to spread the virus – it is quite contagious.

So there you have it. My cautionary tale is the perfect example of the idiom, “Haste makes waste”, meaning doing something too quickly can actually create more problems. Indeed, I brought my current misery upon myself. I think my prosthodontist could also learn from my experience too!

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.