When I arrived in France on Saturday, I noticed the beginnings of some tooth pain. Of course, being that I was in another country, I was going to try to suck it up; grin and bear it; shake it off. But, it kept me awake for two nights. After about 50 Advil, this morning I realized it was an unspeakable pain. Also, I noticed a knot in the roof of my mouth. I thought to myself, "This is not good!" So Caroline and Michele got me an appointment with a French dentist. After several hours of pain, I finally had official word: a cavity had grown under a previous filling and was pressing on my nerve. Within 10 minutes, the dentist had drilled the decay and repacked my tooth with a temporary filling. Going to a French dentist was different than my experiences at American dentists. First off, there were only two people in the whole office--the dentist and his assistant. Second, the building was this amazing historic house and his office was in the one room where he had his dentist supplies, chair, x-ray machine, etc... Even better, it didn't cost me a dime to go. I missed the boat tour that the students took today while I was taking care of my periodontal crisis. I did pick back up when we did our tour of the cathedral and of petite france. We ended the day with a cup of cafe au lait at an outside cafe. Did you know that in a French school's cafeteria, the teachers are served wine with their lunches??
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Kelli, I went to my dentist today. He had the following important advice: 1) go back to the dentist and have him drill a hole in the tooth and stuff it with cotton.(The knot in your mouth is an abscess which causes a gas to build up-it must be able to escape-thus the hole)2)get on an antibiotic now until you can get home and 3)you will need lots of pain meds especially for the flight home.(altitdue will add to the pressure building up around the nerve in your tooth!) With these measures, hopefully, you can still have fun!
I forgot his one final recommendation, wait until you get home to have a more permanent fix to the problem.
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