Before leaving for China we spent many an hour in the dental chair to prevent the need for visiting said institution in China. True to form, our precautions were to no avail! Both Taalan and I have since been on intimate terms with the local dental hospital in Xiangtan.
The saga actually started as early as 4 days after leaving America. I had just had a beautiful crown put on and was sure of many happy years of service. However during our stay in Macau, less that two weeks after the crown had been put on, I developed an abscess. I got an antibiotic and after a week it disappeared. I heaved a sigh of relief, only to have it turn to dismay when several weeks later there was a reoccurrence. This has continued off and on for the past seven months.
Taalan had had on operation on his front tooth in March last year, after it still had not come in after 3 years. Unfortunately the predicted 5-month target passed with still no tooth in sight, so he arrived in China with the tooth still hooked up to braces. After consultation with America, via the Internet, it was agreed that he would have to see the dentist here. Everyone agreed that he would need the gum scraped to allow the tooth to break through the bony area. The only place advised was the Xiangtan Dental Hospital. He went in one morning with Tim and Mr. Tang. The wires to the braces were removed, to the intense interest of at least a dozen dentists who watched the whole procedure. He was also probably the first foreign child to grace their doors. After thorough examination it was agreed that the wire was definitely of superior quality. On to the scraping. The hospital is not modern, but the procedures are correct. Everything is clean and professional. The chairs and lab cases looked pre- revolutionary, and the X-ray machine looked like something out of a 1930's sci-fi movie, but they did the job. They gave Taalan an injection to numb the area, at which point bedlam broke out. The injection had hurt a lot! The fluid had gotten into his mouth and tasted terrible! He was absolutely not going to let anyone touch him again, period! He sat upright, locked onto the armrests like an electrocution victim, and declared the he would die first before he would let them touch him. The exclamations went on for several minutes. He was beyond reasoning, until... Mr. Tang advised Tim to tell Taalan that if he did not let them work on his gum soon, the anesthetic would wear off and he would have to have another injection. This statement brought an immediate change of behavior. He sat himself back on the chair, said go ahead, leaned back, and opened his mouth, not to move for the rest of the procedure. I always knew he was a good actor.
Thankfully the tooth has since come down on schedule and last week he returned for a third examination. It was decided that now was the right time to finish by straightening his teeth. The brackets had been left on for this express purpose. The only preparation needed was to remove the link on the front tooth and replace it with a normal bracket. The superior quality American adhesive came into effect. The link would not come off. Perhaps there was a special solvent that would do the trick, but no chance of finding it in Xiangtan. First they tried to grab it and pull it off; then they tried to pry it off by getting underneath it with sharp-edged pliers. Finally they had to get out the hammer and chisel. Just before this the appearance of the chisel, I had left the room, only to hear a high pitched wail, "No way! You are not going to use a chisel on my tooth! You'll break it." After returning to force Taalan back into the dentist chair, and convince him that I would keep him posted of developments, he allowed them to hammer away at his tooth. I kept firm hold of his head. It took a lot of convincing that the tooth was fine after the link was finally off; all this for a little piece of metal 1-mm square with three tiny links of chain on them. The rest proceeded without a hitch, though they still attach the metal band with thin pieces of wire twisted around the bracket, instead of the fashion-colored bands they use in America. The whole thing takes about twice as long here but otherwise is very satisfactory. In another couple of months, we hope, Taalan will have straight, well- positioned front teeth, for 600 yuan or $75 US. Maybe there are some benefits to being a teacher in China after all.
As for my saga, it may not be over yet. When the tooth continued to re-abscess, I contacted my dentist in Florida for advice. The opinion rendered was that I had somehow cracked the tooth while the temporary crown was on. This was a definite possibility. The solution was to have the tooth X-rayed to see. If this were the case, the tooth would need to be removed. I made an appointment and had the tooth X- rayed, but the dentist was unwilling to remove the tooth without first giving other solutions a try. We could try a round of antibiotics, since the crown was so new, perhaps the tooth had not adjusted yet and was still irritated. We could remove the crown and look at the root to see where the problem was and whether it could be fixed with medication, or as a last resort we could remove the tooth. I chose the antibiotics to start with. After several months the tooth re-abscessed again. Procrastinating until I noticed the abscess not only returning, but getting larger each time, I finally went in with Taalan last week. The dentist was still loath to remove the crown, because it could not be put back on. It appeared on the X-ray that, yes, there is a crack on the tooth, but there is also an area that appeared to not have been filled completely, hence the site for the infection. It was decided to do a minor operation to expose the infected area and remove it, hoping that it would not come back again, while checking on the condition of the root at the same time. I was not thrilled, but didn't want the tooth removed either, so I agreed.
Yesterday I had the operation, and am alive here to write about it today! I do not know how many people were crowded around the table at any one time, somewhere between 4 and 14 if my ears served me well. Taalan was correct -- the needle, new and in its unopened package, hurt much more than in America. They do not rub numbing solution on the area before giving you the needle. The solution also did taste particularly awful, but there the similarities ended. After the area was numb they swabbed my entire mouth, tongue, lips, inside and out, and nose with a disinfectant solution. When it hit the back of my throat, my body recoiled into heaves. Spit, spit! I was instructed by my primitive-brain survival instincts. I did. Wow, did it burn! The question though was, was it supposed to? You hate to look like a foreign wimp when many people are looking over your shoulder, so I kept quiet. A sterilized package of instruments was brought in and revealed. I was then draped with a sheet containing a round hole 4 inches in diameter, eyes covered, and the operation began. For an hour they cut, pushed, scraped, and, yes, chiseled. Then they sewed me up with 6 stitches. Everything was finished successfully.
My mouth stilled burned like crazy so I asked if I could drink some water. Tim, who had been left sitting in the waiting room, waiting for me to come and get him for the operation, had finally found us, 10 minutes before everything was over. I don't know how he found us; we were on the third floor of a rather large building, but he managed to just the same. We then caught the bus back to campus, while our teacher friend went to do some shopping.
I arrived home with my throat still extremely painful, and called our waiban to ask if she felt I should have my mouth looked at. It felt like the area was blistering. She called our local clinic, but the doctors were at home for lunch. Tim left for class with me in bed, determined not to move, slightly more comfortable after taking a pain pill. Our waiban would call back at two. When she called it was agreed that I needed to have my throat looked at. We went into our clinic/hospital and saw the doctor there who was familiar with dental work. She took a swab and touched the back of my throat and came away with strands of the mucous layer attached. She called the doctor who had performed the operation and told him what she saw, at which he decided to drive out immediately to look at me. After half an hour two doctors arrived and examined me. There was discussion about whether the microwaves used just before the stitches had burned my throat, but I assured them that the pain had been immediate on swabbing. There was discussion if the wrong solution had been used, but that was ruled out. There were too many doctors keeping an eye on the proceedings. The doctor had brought information about the solution that they always used. A warning was on the instructions that occasionally there were allergic reactions to this disinfectant, with similar results described. Anywhere that the solution had been applied in concentration, or pooled, as in the back of my throat, the whole protective mucous lining of my mouth had been burned away. No wonder it hurt so much!
I was then confined to a hospital bed and hooked up to a penicillin drip in my arm, after first running a penicillin-allergy test. The hours passed and it was time for the children to come home from school. Our waiban phoned the school to let Taalan know I was in the hospital. He was told that I was in the hospital, but got the impression that I had something stuck through my arm. Tim came home to find Taalan in a panic. I was not home, and Tim did not know where I was. He does not consider our little clinic to be a hospital so he thought I had had to be taken into the main hospital in Xiangtan. Our waiban called him at 4:30 saying only that Anne was in the hospital and would be coming home around 6:00. When she called at 7:00 and asked whether I was back, and expressed surprise that I hadn't returned, Tim began to imagine all kinds of scenarios. The most obvious was that I was getting an IV drip and it was taking longer than expected, the worst was that I had somehow gotten up and run something through my arm and was alone in Xiangtan in a possible life- threatening situation with no one with me who spoke English. He was pretty relieved when I arrived, under my own power, around 7:30. Today I went back to the hospital for another round of IV drips. This time they lasted for nearly 5 hours. The young college students visiting the girl next to me were very cute, asking me if I was hungry around 1:00. I replied "very hungry," and then had to turn down their offer of a pear, since the only things I can swallow yet are plain noodles, scrambled eggs, and ice cream. I do however have a slight sense of taste back today, and bland things don't burn when I eat them. I expect in a few days I will be back to normal. One good thing that came out of the whole experience is that the university decided to pick up the whole cost of the operation. It seems such a shame this had to happen, though, because the doctors were really very professional and otherwise did an excellent job. I hope the saga gets to die a natural death here, and not with a second operation and the tooth being pulled. Please say special prayers for me... As always, I seem to need them. :>} Anne
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