I didn't really need that tooth anyway.
I quite literally bit the bullet.
We had been eating a duck which had been shot on Alan's farm. With my very first mouth full I bit down on the tender fleshy meat and cracked my back mouler in two on the bullet that killed the duck.
I needed it sorted so I phoned the emergency dentist at 3pm after work on Tuesday. Apparently they had a cancelation so if I could get there now I could be seen right away.
At the end of bridge street I found a small a4 paper with 'Dentist' written on it in a plastic sleeve. With an arrow pointing up an overgrown path between two houses.
I followed it up.
At the top of the path was a big old house, I colonial style building, dated pleasantly, but not where I was expecting a dentist to be. I entered through the heavy doors. I found myself in a deserted hallway. A small unmanned reception desk at the base of a set of stairs. I stopped here a while before noticing another -this time printed- sign for "am dentist" pointing along the corridor and then another up some stairs. Sufficiently lost in the dated empty building I stumbled into a dentist surgery come waiting room. There was no wall to separate the two so as I filled in my forms and waited for the dentist I could observe the retro dentists surgery.
I was soon beckoned through by the dentist who had a thick accent, maybe Indonesian. She did not have full command of the English language but we got by.
I had her tools in my mouth and an X-ray done before you could say smile. I'd only come to book an appointment!
Rather than discuss the problem she pulled out a huge needle. One with the old fashioned sisor handles you see in the carry on movies. At this point entered the dental nurse. A young South American girl who knew no more than ten words in English. The needle was popped down on my chest while they had a chat.
The needle was picked up and my mouth opened when we had another visitor. Who orders chinease food to a dental surgery... Apparently my dentist. So as the chinease delivery person stood in the corner of the surgery I had a series of anaesthetic injections. As soon as the last one was in the dentist popped up and sorted out her dinner.
The dentist then asked me what type of filling I wanted, silver or white? I don't know I said, whatever you think. But no I had to give an answer so 50/50 I said white. She sucked in through her teeth and said white was nowhere near as good and not really functional for a back mouler. WHY ASK!
Even though it was apparently the wrong choice she continued with it anyway.
Also hilarious was the fact that every time the dentist spoke to me the nurse with questionable English thought she was talking to her and kept trying to answer the questions, this pissed off the dentist. Just like manuel pisses off basil.
The dentist asked the nurse to mix up the white filling mix. On inspection the dentist said that she hadn't made it right and it was too runny.
For some reason the dentist didn't think I'd heard this and told me that she really didn't think the white option was the way to go. With a mouth full of tampons at this point I was up for anything!
She started drilling MOTHER FRIGGERS THAT HURTS!
Two more doses from the giant needles and third time was the charm. I could still feel a little bit but I decided to just man up. In the end the dentist told me that she was going to use a mercury filling. The dental nurse said that it was ok and got told off again.
Eventually after an hour and a half we were all done I had had a filling.
I met up with Jack who was expecting to go to Judo. With my face still drooping like deputy dawg I decided it wasn't a good idea for me.
Instead we climbed up to the centre of New Zealand for a fantastic view of the city and bay at night before going I to town for a beer and a few games of pool.
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