It’s been two days since my dental work, and I’ve been following the aftercare instructions, which advise against smoking. Instead, I’ve been enjoying an evening highs fuelled by cannabis beverages. It gives me the best kind of high but at a higher cost.
I have stitches halfway down the middle of the roof of my mouth. After pushing it deeper, the dentist did a bone graft to reinforce the implant.
Before I got the implant, I asked a friend who I knew had them how the procedure went for them. What they said was reassuring, if not vague (given their implant happened over 20 years ago).
To anyone who has stumbled upon this post and wants to know how much it sucks to get dental implants:
It is awful.
It is terrifying to sit still while the dentist puts a drill through your maxilla while half of your mouth is numb. I think it’d be worse if I could hear the drilling and the scraping. I could feel the fine mist of my blood spraying around my mouth in sync with the drill. I could feel the drill. My last appointment was an hour and twenty minutes long because the dentist struggled to stitch up the roof of my mouth. The lidocaine was starting to wear out near the end. I decided the mild pain was worth the further discomfort of having my mouth numb for even longer.
It has been time-consuming. I used to show up for my dentist appointments by presenting myself to one of the two or three receptionists at the counter with my name and appointment time. Now, I wave to everybody behind the desk and sit in the waiting area.
I’ve reached that level of celebrity at my dentist’s office.
I doubt I’ve put in enough work to earn a spot on their wall of Most Valuable Patients. My dentist said the most implants he’s done on one person were 20.
Every time I sit in that reclining chair, I am presented with a monitor showing photos of the inside of my mouth in full colour—in HD. I know my dental implant-having friend did not have access to that level of detail. The photos are straight-up gory. I would not even share them behind a link here.
The upside is that it’s still been worth it. I like having teeth.
Not too many teeth, of course. Baraka was one of the characters I selected while playing the world’s most popular button-masher, Mortal Kombat 11, with Jordi last night. I’m big on gore, as suggested by my aforementioned dismay for looking at close-up photos of my ongoing dental work, but the gore in this game is comical. These game designers are creatively demented.
The names of some of the arenas are exquisite: Sea of Blood, Black Dragon Fight Club, and Soul Chamber.
Kotal Kahn impales his opponent in the chest with an ancient Aztec weapon called the Macuahuitl, then uses the bottom of a magic pyramid to really drive it through.
I couldn’t go to sleep until 2am after playing the game. I think I caffeinated myself too late in the day, too.
I’ve also been cross-stitching, which is the opposite of ripping someone’s spine out in Mortal Kombat. I’m working on a video game-inspired piece. 16-bit Super Nintendo art lends well to cross-stitch patterns. I’d like to try applying cross-stitch patterns to quilting as well.
I am brimming with ideas for my next crafting project, all while the long-awaited springtime weather has been temping me outdoors. Alexa joined me for a 7am ride earlier this week: a 25km course along the waterfront. Those 6am group rides I did last year (I only did three) were too much for me. 7am is the Goldilocks of early morning rides: there’s no traffic along the scenic route that early in the day, and I’m awake enough. We repeated the same ride a few days later and both times, I thought to myself, I live in a beautiful place.
It is so beautiful here, and the cherry blossoms are still in bloom.
And the magnolias are aggressively gorgeous.
I am also excited about the hybrid emojis that came with Google Pixel’s latest update.
Ah, the simple pleasure of sending a friend a fried shrimp thumbs up. What a time to be alive.
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