This Should Hurt

About 10 days ago, I started having a problem with a tooth. When someone has severe stomach problems, good oral health is hard to achieve and maintain. I finally decided to have it checked out.

My own dentist is on vacation, but his Associate checks this for me. "Does it hurt?" he asks. I describe it as uncomfortable, but not painful. He looks at the tooth again. "Are you sure this hasn't been hurting?"
"It's not painful," I assure him.
"This should hurt," he tells me. And repeats himself. His Chair Assistant is nodding throughout the exchange.

He proceeds to fix it. He isn't certain he'll be able to do all that is required, but does all he can. "If you feel spontaneous pain in your tooth, you need to let me know right away," he warns. For the rest of that day, when I feel pain in my tooth, I try to analyze it. Sure, I have pain now, but isn't that because I'd had dental instruments poking around for an hour. That's just to be expected.

One problem with having chronic pain is that you don't notice all pain. I add pain to the inventory of things wrong that I carry around. I really don't know what's caused by injury or spontaneous.

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