I woke on Sunday morning still with a painful jaw and mouth coated in speckles of dry blood and feeling a tiredness that I both knew and expected, but otherwise fine. I might be minus another tooth, but it was without a doubt one of the easiest and least painful extraction I have ever had. It wasn’t that the dentist used any new or different way of removing my tooth, but I like many people have a fear of such a process, without a doubt, being at home, relaxed and at ease, made a huge difference. It might have been easier for me, but my poor dentist found himself fighting with a tooth like neither he or his assistant had ever seen before. Thanks to a problem I had with my wisdom teeth, long since gone, the lower half of the root was at a 90-degree angle to the rest of it. The pair of them kept staring at it and studying it with awe, I just wanted them to put it away.

One of the roots did break at the point of the angle and is still sitting in my gum. They assured me, that this isn’t a problem at all, and that it will either just stay there, or slowly bring itself to the surface. Just to be sure nothing goes wrong, I am on a precautionary round of antibiotics and I also have an antiseptic mouthwash to use for a week. He is also coming to see me again in three mouths time, just to check all is well. I did get around to asking what would happen if I needed a filling or any process requiring care he could supply in my home, as I expected, the answer would be a referral to the dental hospital, but after his care over the last two weeks, I would recommend him to any and everyone.

He didn’t just arrive with the intent of removing my tooth, but he was also bearing a gift, one he did appologise for as it bore a green penguin on the handle. He had brought me a new toothbrush, one he would normally give to a child. From the staining and so on, on my teeth, he had noted that I was clearly having issues using a normal adult brush. I thought he was joking, but he was so sure that I would find it easier, I did try it later that day. He was right. It hadn’t crossed my mind that my dexterity could cause issues with cleaning my teeth, but it is. The small head means I can now with ease manage to clean all of my teeth with ease. I would recommend that anyone with dexterity problems buys a child brush and just tries it, brushes are cheap, our teeth aren’t. I have to admit though, I’m not too taken with the green penguin.

Having a tooth pulled is surprisingly something that causes raised fatigue. He did warn me, but I just didn’t see it coming, but it did. The next two days I found myself with a raised desire to sleep but still with enough energy to go on an internet search for a child’s toothbrush, that wasn’t a horrid colour or had some kind of animal embedded in the handle. Simple things like a good range of toothbrushes are actually hard to find online. Yes, you can find cheap multipacks of unknown brands and vivid colours that would clash with anything, but not being able to get to a shop, it’s hard to find what you want. On the good side, you come across things you have never seen or heard of before. Hence my most recent and unusual purchase. I have bought a child size charcoal toothbrush. Its handle is made of bamboo, so therefore unlike the millions of plastic ones out there, it’s biodegradable, but the even odder feature, are the brushes that are black and impregnated with charcoal.

Despite being well aware of the properties of charcoal and that the ancients used it to clean their teeth, I never once thought of using it on mine. I have decided, despite the fact that it cost about double what I would normally be happy to pay, to buy one. Why? Well, it’s simple, my teeth are now horribly brittle and difficult to clean, with stable cracks and so on, the makers (including some of the major brands you would know, but only on sale in the orient) say they are more effective against both plaque and staining. Some of the bristles are also incredibly fine, which means they get between your teeth and for most people, means no more flossing, something I simply can’t do. It sounds like a win-win buy to me and truly worth trying at least once. If you want, you can now actually buy charcoal toothpaste, which I am thinking about, just to use once a week.

It’s now Tuesday, a whole four days after the extraction and my mouth although still slightly swollen and tender, is fine, I’m still finding myself more tired than I should be. Our bodies despite being amazing, react in the weirdest ways at times. I know that my PRMS is playing a huge part but it was just a tooth, not a limb. It wasn’t as though I lost a lot of blood, in fact, the dentist commented that I bled incredibly little, to the point that when he handed me a gaze strip to bite down on, it came out almost clean. He left me another one just in case, but he didn’t expect I would need it. I though had to have my shower that afternoon and I knew before I stepped into it, that the heat would cause a rush, just as it did. So blood loss, couldn’t be playing a part, just in case, some might think of that one. I guess it’s just the normal, I live inside a screwed up form that does exactly whatever it wants, without any consideration for me.

Please read my blog from 2 years ago today – 25/01/2015 – Hidden blessings

Exhaustion is pulling on me badly today, it has that all too well-known feeling that I am being dragged down into a need to sleep so strong that it’s hard to ignore. Since I wrote the post on fatigue the other day, I realised that I am as guilty as a million other people with chronic illness of just saying “I’m tired” or……