It's Like Pulling Teeth

I've had toothache for a couple of weeks now.  It started when I went to the bat cave but has settled down since and has periodically given me some pain, or moreover discomfort. 

As I have no immediate plans to go to Singapore or the UK I figured that I should perhaps get something done here before my whole jaw explodes in severe agony, forcing me to do something drastic.  As the pain seems to centre around the tooth at the back of my upper jaw I recalled my dentist in the UK several years ago wanting to yank out my perfectly good wisdom teeth.  When I asked him why, he declared they would undoubtedly give me problems later in life.  However, I didn't see that as reasonable enough cause to whip out perfectly good and serviceable teeth so to his dismay, I didn't let him.

Now I'm wondering whether than decision has come home to roost?  Especially as it doesn't feel like a conventional toothache (if there is such a thing) but feels like there's pressure on it from the adjacent wisdom tooth.  But I've convinced myself that at nearly 50 my teeth would have stopped growing some time ago so this can't possibly be the cause.  Besides, the pain had gone from being awful to mildly uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, I had a quandary: I felt as though I should get it looked at but I knew finding a decent and hygienic dentist here might prove to be a problem.  Then a piece of grey filling came out with my chewing gum, which spurred me into action.

So I looked on the internet and found a recommendation and booked an appointment - although an appointment wasn't entirely necessary, all I had to do was jump in the car and go down to the clinic there and then.

Of course, my initial reservations weren't unfounded and whilst the clinic wasn't exactly dirty it didn't  exactly inspire confidence either.

The dentist asked me what was wrong then proceeded to have a look around in my mouth and poke about with a miniature, spindly crow bar, tugging and jabbing at the filling so hard at times that I thought he would dislodge it regardless.  He said he couldn't find anything wrong with it so he did an x-ray.  Nothing wrong with that either.  So he filed my tooth down like I was some thoroughbred race horse and that didn't seem to change anything.  He summarised by stating that if I continued to have a problem he'd replace the filling.

I left the surgery a thousand pesos lighter and thinking that I'd rather have Dr. Szell change my filling than give this guy a second chance.