August 14, 2003

Zee French Denteest een Port of Spain

My teeth have gone international. Well one tooth in particular, bottom row left side. It has been seen in Grenada, The Motherland and now Trinidad, the latter courtesy of zee dentist francais recommended by Tall Hat P.

What happened? Well gyurl, ah go by de Breakfast Shed cross de road, and ah bite into a roast bake and ah hear "crunch, crunch". Ah sey to mahself, "is what dem put in de bake sah" but when mah tongue swoosh around, ah feeling a real sharp feeling. Closer inspection once I got back to my abode showed piece of the filling missing! What a la-la.

So this morning, bright and early, I had to take a trek up to Frederick Street. Number 69 to be exact. Reached about 5 minutes late, walking in the hot sun for a good 20 minutes. Registered, then went in to The Chair. The sight of the needles sent the heart rate up.

Zee Denteest walks in and asks what he can do for me. Don't juk mi hard. That's what I shoulda said. But I said "my filling has fallen out". His reply "your feeeling can't fall out, eet might cheep or crack, but not fall out". OK then! He looks inside my mouth and declares "you have beautiful teeth". I'm thinking "you got to be kidding". With the amount of fillings, I should have been called Metal Mouth instead of Mona Monkey. Anyway, he's the expert. Why contest his opinion?

I then declare "I don't like dentists". Just to make him know seh, mi nuh into de pain ting. Well you'll laugh at his response which was "Me neither, I hate dentists".

The needle comes down into my gum, not once, not twice, but three whola times. He massages the gum from the outside and I am numbed up rather quickly. Not this slow thing in England where you have to go sit outside and wait 10 or so minutes for things to take effect.

Now while he was jabbing me, I was making noises, sort of humming. The brazen man sey "please don't seeng, I don't like seenging". Wouldnt you like to know what he then starts doing when he is working on my mouth? You got it. And it was "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" of all things!

Anyway, he was in and out in a flash. Muttered to himself "so far so gooooood" and that he couldn't quite figure out if the tooth was dead or not. Commented on the ratio of filling to tooth. Too high. Not goooooood he says.

He finishes and says don't eat until lunch (it's now about 9:30am). No problem. The cashier doesn't have change for a US$100 note so she suggested I run up to the bank. What? They trust a Jamaican to leave owing money, and don't think that she's not going to come back? Well she must know that I am Miss Properly Brought Up.

Pay the dear lady and leave the office with my liver lip. Hey, you ever try spitting into that little bowl in the dentist's chair, with a liver lip? I missed the bowl three times, didn't have on glasses so couldn't see is what pon de floor mi did wet up.

So liver lip and I marched down Frederick Street thinking "Charge it!" Shopping here I come. If only the darn credit card would work though.

At the end of shopping, the lip bundle was replaced by a bundle including cloth, juice, sardines and MOST IMPORTANTLY....the salt prunes. Made Sis's day.

Da is it fuh now.

Posted by yamfoot at August 14, 2003 02:25 AM
Comments

heh heh, my front tooth broke in two one morning at breakfast.

I had taken a fall as a teenager and done serious damage to that tooth, and it just more brittle every year until it went, yeah i hate Dentists and stay far from them.

Had to go thru the whole drama of removing it, root canal and replacing it wth a temp, which is still there. ouch

Posted by: Dale at August 16, 2003 11:25 AM

one dentist had mentioned root canal for this same tooth and me and the tooth holding out as long as possible, cause I hear is not a nice thing at all. Hush!

Posted by: Michelle at August 16, 2003 05:12 PM

Wikid! Another Jamaican blogger! Wonderful! I will be back to see you again, seen.
Now I am a pro at this dentist thing. I got a fair amount of fillings too and I notice that I usually get three sticks. What is worse for me though is that those three usually don't work. They usually aren't enough and I have to get a few more before I am all numbed out! When it wears off, I feel like a pin cushion! A so it go doh... Latah.

Posted by: Mad Bull at August 16, 2003 05:18 PM

dem obviously not using the high grade ting on you Mad Bull! I felt no pain after the three sticks

Posted by: Michelle at August 17, 2003 07:13 PM

Root canal - been there/done that - Trust me - better the tooth drop out than go down that path !

Posted by: Jane at August 21, 2003 10:39 PM

dats ezactly what I thought Jane, so I am trying to hold on to the tooth. Hope you and family are well down under.

Posted by: Michelle at August 22, 2003 05:50 PM

gyul yuh making meh homesick! Please go roun the Savannah (translation: Queen's Park Savannah) and have som roas corn (might break anoder teeth (translation: tooth)) an' some coconut water!! on second thought better try de boil corn!

Debbie


Posted by: DEBORAH MCMAYO at August 23, 2003 08:47 PM

Hey Deborah, guess what? I'm now in Grenada! but will do the Savannah thing when I get back to Trinidad in October.

ps. I think I spotted Antonia last Friday night, but was too far away to say hello. I'm sure I will buck her up before I leave.

Posted by: Michelle at August 24, 2003 08:17 PM

Michelle, like you I am not a dentist lover. Even though I'm a doctor, the site of that dentist's needle coming forth from behind the chair always makes me get tense.

So tell me now, dis Frenchman dentist never hear bout spraying a local anaesthetic on de gum dem before you get the heap o juck?? That nuh standard proceedure now..... and it significantly reduces the pain of the stick.

Anyway, your story reminds me of a little episode with my teeth back in my late teens that I may just do a post about tonight.

Keep up the posts, I am enjoying reading.


Posted by: Dr. D. at August 25, 2003 03:35 PM

Thanks Dr D. I need to get my own computer so I can do more and load pics too. in time, all in time.

Indeed I asked him about that thing because my very good dentist here in Grenada always used that and I never felt any pain. But him seh him neva did 'ave dat, imagine dat eeeee.

Posted by: Michelle at August 25, 2003 07:29 PM

You know, you never fail to amaze me. Are you the same person who (sorry about the tooth by the way) asked me why I bought saltfish in a toilet tissue bag from the vendors at Heroes' Circle???? Do u know if these people across the road (and I know exactly where u went missy)have a food handlers permit? huh huh? Pot cya'cuss kettle nuh more...ha!

Posted by: Sis at August 28, 2003 11:17 PM

I will find out! But plenty people go there and I dont suppose they get sick!

Posted by: Michelle at August 29, 2003 07:33 PM

Oh God....Bre'fus Shed!!! My fellas in T&T took me there when I was in T&T in Easter, and I must admit I was horrified and I let them know exactly that.......as far as I was concerned, it was rather like sitting down to eat in Papine Market....I mean...really. Well boy, I tell dem fellas say I fraid o' all dem tings I does see dem cooking up..and I ent having none o' it. All dem having crab and all kinda gooey ting.. Me? I had pelau...safe. All dey laugh at me..how I's one o' dem stush Jamaicans....guess who had the last laugh when certain man doubled over in pain later that day and had what can only be (inelegantly) called 'running belly'???? Good. Me and Bre'fus Shed ent friends..no sah.

Posted by: Patch at September 1, 2003 10:13 AM

I guess it's one of those places that you would get take away from rather than eating in!

Posted by: Michelle at September 2, 2003 10:15 PM