The Dentist Visit from Hell

 On Monday morning Tom and I got on the Malolo Cat ferry and headed for Nadi, where I had a dentist appointment scheduled for midday Tuesday. When we arrived at the ferry terminal in Denerau we took a shuttle bus to our hotel – Nadi Bay Resort -  in Nadi. It was a nice little place with dorm rooms, regular rooms and apartments. I was in quite a bit of pain and spent the afternoon napping. After dinner at the hotel restaurant we retired to our room and spent the evening watching the 2 channels of TV.

On Tuesday we took a cab to the dentist office, which was a one room “office” inside the Nadi medical center. I told the dentist which tooth it was that I thought was hurting and she banged on my teeth with the blunt end of her dental mirror to find the correct tooth. Well, when she hit the bad tooth I went flying out of the dentist chair. Tom was in the room with me – Thank God!!!! – and watched in horror as she did this to me.  The dentist then took a better look at the sore tooth and thought that it looked like a crack in the filling. She took an x-ray and we determined that there’s no absess and suggested that the filling be drilled out and a new filling put in. 

She said that she would put in a temporary filling and we could come back in 3 weeks to have a permanent filling put in. Both Tom and I said that we could not do that so she agreed to put a permanent filling in right away. She then explained that she would drill out the old filling without giving me any novacaine!!!! Well, that did it – I started crying right then and there. My pain tolerance is zero when it comes to mouth pain and I was ready to walk out of the dentist office. They calmed me down and the dentist agreed (reluctantly) to give me some novacaine. The next 45 minutes was spent with her drilling out the old cavity – hitting a nerve every 30 seconds or so. Tom sat in a chair at the base of my dentist chair and rubbed my legs and feet the entire time to help calm me down. The dentist then put in a new filling. The whole procedure took 1 ½ hours. The dentist told us that it would take 3-5 days until I would feel better.

Well, it’s day 3 and I still feel like hell. If things aren’t better by day 5 I will most likely get on a plane to New Zealand and see if a specialist there can help me. Hopefully it won’t come to that…

 

 

Comments

[Joan Gregory]

What a miserable experience, Dawn. We feel your pain, having visited some interesting dentists ourselves during our journeys offshore. On another note, Jan and I went to Sidney, B.C., to visit with Sue Dyer, of "SeaFire." We lent a hand in offloading things from the boat (things nec for endless offshore cruising, but not nec for living on a boat and sailing coastal waters). With the Rutherfords of "Mettle" and another Waterline ("Jaca"), we spent a lovely two nights in Montague Harbor, taking a daysail on "Mettle." Sue plans to live on "SeaFire" in Sidney--a grand idea, since she will be surrounded by caring, knowledgable people, in a lovely place. Hope your tooth situation is better, Dawn, and we envy your explorations in Fiji, our favorite place. All the best, Joan Gregory and Jan Campbell, formerly of "Casteele"