An Unexpected Mishap In The Dentist Office

That title sounds about as weird as "a deer hit my car" or saying you’re pen pals with someone but all you did was exchange pens, not papers.

This is a story about how I almost drowned in the dentist's office.

You might wonder how that is possible? No, the spray did not get into my mouth and almost drowned me, I almost drowned on my saliva.

Before I get into the story I do want to make a disclaimer that this is not trying to bash the profession of dentistry and that I do not have a problem with dentists at all. I've never been scared of the dentist, and if I was, I would let my concerns be known to the dentist. The concerns I would say would be taken seriously even when I would say if a root canal was scraping and without Novocain, and my dentist would shrug and say "You watched Finding Nemo didn't you?"

This was just one of the weirdest circumstances I’ve ever been in.

I was in the procedure of getting my second root canal done, I’m not that familiar with dentist tools but I’m gonna try and see if I can explain these tools the best I can.

Halfway through this procedure, there is a tool that the dentist used to screw in (It sounds scary but I just remember there were thing where he screwed the end of it) And I do remember that this thing did keep my mouth open. The dentist had to go turn to other patients and his assistant kept coming to check up on me, then the checkups stopped. Not that I needed to be checked on every five minutes, but I did notice it was taking too long. I needed to have the saliva removed from my mouth because I could not close my mouth. When I was left on my own, I had to know how this contraption was positioned, could I close my mouth to swallow? No, I felt my top teeth touch the tooth that was screwed into the bottom part of my teeth at a 45-degree angle.

I was just left on my own like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. Except with it being detrimental, it was detridental.

I sat there in the comfy chair and even though I had no idea what time it was or how much time it passed it was getting a little bit too long before I was checked on again and I could feel the saliva filling up my mouth, and I had no idea what to do when I couldn’t even say I needed help because I would’ve sounded like a fish. I could have tried to swallow but I didn't want to take the chance If I wasn't supposed to, I wasn't informed and in no position to talk due to the tool in my mouth.

I knew I had to do something because I was worried about choking on my saliva. So I did the only logical thing getting up from the chair with the tools in my mouth and navigating over to the counter. Keep in mind this is what I looked like to give the image of what I have to describe to you. Remember the lean dance move in Michael Jackson’s Smooth criminal? Imagine that but going the other way leaning so far back and I had to make sure that my mouth is still in the same position as if I was still laying down the whole back of my body was still in the same position I just kind of move my legs around. I quickly grabbed three or four tissues and just proceeded to dump all that saliva into the tissues.

And even after I did that it was still about 5 to 10 minutes Before a dental assistant came back to check up on me. It was a good thing that I got up because it was quite sometime before the dentist came back and no one even knew I got out of my chair. Even though I was holding a bottle of tissues in my hand.

My dentist came back to finish the procedure for my root canal, which was good because otherwise the title of this story would be called "How I Almost Drowned In The Dentist's Office Twice"

This odd experience didn't change me to be scarred by the dentist. It was just one of those days that everyone was busy with a limited staff, I don't know if there were patients during that time that were having a procedure done that was more intense than my root canal. I always try to keep it cool and think of hypothetical answers that are realistic in the reasons I was left for so long with the tools in my mouth.

It may have been a detridental situation, but at least it wasn't tooth or consequences.