Tiny foreword: what follows is the text of an e-mail sent to Index, in reply to his asking how my root canal today went. I had not intended to post about this, but he wrote back, insisting that I do so.
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$945.00 later…

I begin with a quotation [which I have posted here at FOB, previously]–

“The sexual parts are not only vivid examples of the body’s dominion; they are also apertures whose damp emissions and ammoniac smells testify to the mysterious putrefaction of the body.”
Roger Scruton (1944 – ), British philosopher, author. Sexual Desire (1986).

I now have a much better understanding about the expression “the mysterious putrefaction of the body.” Because when the endodontist opened that tooth, the smell that issued forth was…was…

It’s hard to describe.

Take the rankest, vilest halitosis you’ve ever smelled, and increase that by many orders of magnitude. The smell that issued forth truly deserved the designation “hell smell.” It smelled how I imagine the breath of a zombie, many days dead, must smell.

This was because the tooth is dead. Utterly vanquished by bacteria….

(which explains the mind obliterating pain of a few weeks ago and the associated rise of gum pimples). After drilling his way into the interior of the tooth, he reamed out the rotten dead pulp with various instruments, each curiously reminiscent of a plumber’s snake. Weirdest thing is, these little files and saws were like, an inch long, and he was reaming all the way down to the jawbone. This followed by the acrid smell of bleach, because that is exactly what they use to sterilize the interior of the tooth, prior to filling and sealing (it kills all bacteria known to man – none can survive). Then more reaming, then drying the inside with bits of cotton, then with little tubes of paper. Then the depth of the canals are measured, so he knows how much filler to use. Then come the pieces of of “gutta percha,” which is the inert resin of a kind of South American tree. This is packed in, totally filling up the canals. Then sealing the whole thing over with a temporary filling until the cap can be put on. Took about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Anyway, I understand the process thoroughly now, having read about it, and then actually observing the process as it was performed on me. At the end, he took a few more X-rays and showed them to me (X-rays are digital, now). Where the dark, infected areas were are now bright white cones of the gutta-percha, filling the interior of the tooth.

Afterword:

Now, Pinky, et al – don’t be too smug. Because you can brush and floss your pearly whites every day, and get regular cleanings and fluoride treatments, and fillings when necessary, etc. (just like I did), but if you crack a tooth on a corn-nut, or a cornchip, or a piece of hazelnut shell in a cookie, etc., etc., you’re gonna walk that miserable mile, and no amount of oral hygiene will stop those nasty little spirochetes from eventually invading your tooth and chewing on the soft pulp until it stinks like the grave.

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