A dental emergency

I woke up in pain on my right cheek Tuesday night. It felt like someone just hit me. Something was wrong! What was it? I couldn't figure it out nor could I do anything to ease it. The pain persisted through out the night, and I drifted in and out of sleep until daybreak.

Going through my normal morning routine for work, I was debating whether I should call a sick day on Wednesday. That day I needed to be in Rancho Cordova to attend an all-day kick-off meeting for a big project that will last multi-years and hundreds of million dollars to complete. Driving is always the last thing that I want to do, not to mention driving with severe tooth ache. But I did, out of strong work ethic, drive that 110 miles from home to the meeting. During the meeting, the new executive driver was very upbeat about the program and the management team was drumming up accordingly with evangelical zeal. It was very interesting, but I was in pain. Finally, the meeting adjoined around 4:00 pm and again I drove that 110 miles home, still in pain despite the application of Orajel that I picked up at Wal-mart before my journey home.

Arriving home I took a dose of 800mg Ibuprofen and applied ice pack in vain. "I need medical attention, my God!", thought I. In the agony of pain, I called Dr. Yang, my dentist in Marin, who told me to call him in a few hours if the Ibuprofen didn't help and he would prescribe a stronger pain medication, otherwise, I should see him next day, he would squeeze me into his fully-booked schedule. After the call, I went to bed, drifting in and out of sleep until the next morning.

Early Thursday morning, I dialed into to my company network, arranged a few things that need to be done via emails, and informed folks at work that I need to take a sick day for a dental emergency. I seldom call in sick, I didn't remember when was the last time I took a sick day off!

Dr. Yang's assistant told me to come in at 11:50 pm when I called. He poked around the teeth where the pain located and concluded that I needed to see an Endodontist for evaluation and treatment immediately. His assistant called Dr. Ebeid and I was told to get there at 3:15pm. I was elated, though in pain, that I got to see a specialist the same day. Shortly after arriving at Dr. Ebeid's office, he quickly identified that my #2 tooth had cracked with an infected nerve.

"You need a root canal, you can't make it through the day. Do you want to have it done today?" asked Ebeid in a tone of doctor's order though my consent is necessary for him to do the procedure.

"Oh, yes! I just want the pain to go away, you know I can't make it through the day." said I in such an agony of pain with trembling voice. After I sign the consent form, he did the procedure right away.

How surprised I was with the speed of his diagnosis and the procedure! I would recommend him to my friends. Before sending me home, he said "you will feel tired and hungry since you had not eaten nor slept well in the past two days, but you will feel better. Call me if you sill have any more pain".

On Friday when I went to Dr. Gamboa, my dentist in San Francisco, for my planned semi-annual check-up, he said that I handled the situation well and Dr. Ebeid did the right thing. One more thing needs to do is to put a crown after it heals completely in July. He also confirmed that Dr. Ebeid was his student at dental school where he taught for many years.

Now that I am myself again, I am grateful for the good dentists who responded to my call for help, and the insurance coverage that I have. Had I not maintained good relationships with my care providers over the span of more than 20 years, I can't image how this episode would turn out. I can't even dare to think the out-of-pocket payment if I didn't have dental insurance.