Today's word is Calcified (kal'-sihf-eyed)

Used in a sentence: When one of the two roots in a typical tooth is found to be blocked once a root canal has begun, it is said to be "calcified".

Synonyms include: "I may have to refer you to a specialist" and "Expect to pay out the currently-numb nose" (that latter also known as, "this won't hurt a bit")

Tooth number 12 was drilled on today. From the start, I was fine & felt no pain. Okay, granted: She truly did shot enough novicane in my mouth to numb my NOSE... Then she came to that damned calcified root. I must note here that she is about the best ever dentist I've been under the drill for. Honestly. I'd refer her to anyone. Perhaps especially to the Horndawgs, because she's (oh my God, DON'T SAY IT!!) cute as a button (*sigh* he said it). But after uncovering the "C" root, all pain broke loose. It was pain-a-licious. The Pain Train has arrived en-route to its final stop, Pain Central Station. ... So she adds more novicane until even my lower left eyelid doesn't seem to want to work right.

So, in case I didn't convey this clearly enough, that was the worse of the two roots. More, it looks like she might not have been able to finish it off because that "calcification" thing could be deeper in the root. I can only conclude that the best thing I could have done to avoid this is to not have included any milk or other calcium-containing foods in my diet. Don't pay that last sentence any mind, kids. Be good and take your calcium pills...

The last part of the first half of the procedure today (yes I must go back to see the cute-as-a-button dentist... poor me), is to pack the drilled-and-reamed roots with some medicated material & let it stew for a couple weeks. After that, if there's no more calcification going on in there, I'll start having a cap made for the tooth. Maybe.

Hey, I was twiching from the nose-numbing, eyelid inhibiting, novicane when she went over that part. All I know is that I have to fill this prescription for the antibiotic that I also have to take for a week, and also the vicodin for the presumed forthcoming pain (actually it's starting to come to me now).

Even after all that, as I sit typing this, I do believe that coming off of the novicane is about the worst non-drilling part of the trip: I have an itch on my cheek, but it's totally numb when I scratch. It's as if I'm scratching a plate of glass that's over the itch. It sucks.
....
I typed all that up about three hours ago. My face has all its feeling again, but if this tooth begins to throb much more I may just tell Princess Vicodin to do her stuff.

THE GOOD NEWS: My dental insurance, bucking the trend of about every other insurance carrier I've heard of out there, has increased coverages. This root canal, had it been done last year would've been 70% covered, now is 80% covered. If I have any "major" work done (I'm assuming this is the "rebuild your jaw" type of scenario), that coverage is up from 50% to 60%. Not quite enough to put me in a Snoopy-dance mood, but it's helpful. The down side is that I have to put out $2,000 for dental stuff in a year before they cover 100%. Two grand? I don't plan on even spending last year's threshhold of $1,750 for that to kick in!

Of course that has me trying to think of how much pain $2,000 would buy me there ... And how much of a better deal I could get in a red-light district somewhere for the same money.

(this all transpired about a month ago actually. I'm all better now.)