My first dentist appointment in Paris.

Let me start from the beginning. 

Two days ago, on All Saints Day, a holiday in France, I woke up with a dull pain in one of my back teeth. I ignored it and just hoped it would go away. I met up with one of my friends for a coffee and then we decided to go to a crepe restuarant for lunch.  As soon as I took the first bite, I knew there was trouble. 

OUCH. 

I went home afterward to relax and the pain became increasingly unbearable. I looked around my apartment only to discover I had no aspirin, Advil or Aleve....nothing...and because of the holiday all the pharmacies were closed. It got to the point that it hurt to walk because I could feel all the nerves moving around whenever I did.

What am I going to do?????

I texted one of my friends from the neighborhood to see if he or his girlfriend had any medicine. Within 5 minutes he called me and told me to come to the cafe because our other friend, the pharmacist was there. 

 I hobbled to the cafe to be quickly greeted by the pharmacist who wisked me away to her shop.

She opened the doors just for me and quickly packed a little sack full of pain killers and mouth rinses to hold me over until I could see a dentist.

and the bag from the pharmacy...made from potatoes :)

Within 30 minutes all the pain went away. 

How lucky am I to know these people in this neighborhood???

VERY LUCKY

That same night I woke up around 3am with excrutiating pain again...another pill and back to sleep in 30 minutes....I was getting nervous..this is bad.

The following morning I called another friend for advice on a dentist. She quickly called her dentist who was unavailable for the next two days ... so then her mother got me an appointment today with another dentist.

I traveled about 30 minutes outside of the neighborhoodhood to see this dentist today and I was nervous...I was expecting the worst like having my tooth pulled...The man was very nice but his English was average at best....so I did my best to explain the symptoms in French with a combination of hand movements describing the pain. 

(insert spirit fingers here to describe tingling pain and throbbing sensation)

The dentist is scary enough in the States, but when a French dentist has a prickly tool in your mouth and is asking you questions in French, the stakes go up.

So after an intense cleaning and a diagnosis of gum inflammation which irritated the nerves...(and "irritated" is putting it mildly...more like tears streaming down my face)...

Viola!!!

I will go back in 2 weeks to make sure things look normal.

And the cost of this visit to the dentist today?

0.00€

WHY? 

I don't know but thank you to all the nice people who helped me get through this experience. 

And you know who you are :)

And interesting enough the word for tooth in French is"dent"...like dentist...cool.

I hope to eat something crunchy tonight.

Because I don't feel like I am really eating unless the food is crunchy. :)