Pliers Please: Tbilisi
Blog
This could have been one of those situations which is metaphorically referred to by that feeling you have when your tongue has to get used to that strange empty spot in your mouth when a tooth has just come out. You know, loss of something important and comfortable to you. Instead, it’s the thing itself, the extraction of a couple of actual teeth.
No, I didn’t take any selfies of my recent dental surgery in progress, which would have started a worldwide craze and infuriated the medical community. There’s enough “selfieshness” in the world already. I made that word up now; you saw it here first.
I did, however, obtain my original 3D computer tomographic file, showing clearly the extent of bone loss in certain parts of my gums and arguing for the urgent removal of a front and a back tooth. I had gone to the dentist because of a wobbly and sore right front tooth, and then all this came out too.
Now, I’m one of the people who is blessed not to be at all afraid of visits to the dentist’s office. I chose one which came recommended by a number of Tbilisi expats online, and it’s also the main one used by the American Embassy here, which says a lot. (They told me it turns into a circus at Embassy staff rotation time, given the extremely low rates compared to those in the USA.) My wife wasn’t impressed by their prices, but I was impressed with the care, which to me is worth money.
After a cleaning of all my teeth, a 2D X-ray and the 3D scan, they presented their findings and recommendations, and being here in the city anyway, I decided to go for what was necessary to do quickly. Svaneti is a long way from such good dental care!
5 or 6 injections of painkiller, themselves hardly felt, numbed my mouth, lips and even my nose to the point where they felt like they belonged to someone else when I touched them. Then the fun work began, involving the dentist himself and his assistant pulling, prying, plying as required while I just lay there and tried not to laugh at the strangeness of it all. They got the two teeth out, and then some rather fine stitches were required. Then some fake bone paste to adhere to the now toothless areas, to support them; this stuff took more than half of the total cost of the couple of hours’ work. Not much room to maneuver in my rather small mouth!
I had asked in advance to have the two offending items given to me, which they were, bloody and rooted, in a tiny Ziploc bag. The dentist wrote me a prescription for some nice strong powdered painkiller, antibiotics and chamomile tea to swish my mouth with and keep swelling down. I walked out of there with my tongue beginning its probing of the new spaces, hoping that this would be the last extractions I’ll need for a long time. The implants to replace them come much later, likely spring next year; I’ve foregone temporary ones, realizing that I’ll fit in just fine in a rural Georgian setting with my Pirate Jack look for a while. I’ve sterilized and cleaned the removed teeth, and they’re now drying in the sun. My wife has politely declined my offer to turn them into earrings for her.
Now if I can just learn to get past an annoying tendency to lisp due to the gap where my front tooth used to be, all will be well! I might pick up a whole new whistling technique into the bargain.
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 1900 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:
www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
By Tony Hanmer