Upgrading My Dental Care

During lockdown, my filling fell out and I’ve neglected to go to the dentist since. The other day I experienced severe tooth pain and made an appointment the next day. My dentist taught me a lot about what that pain was, how I could mitigate it, and the next steps to upgrading my dental care. 

I grew up using cheap dental products from the dollar store and learned that my old habits did not serve me. With my preferences and situation, my dentist recommended products, techniques, and procedures to keep my teeth healthy and strong.

After upgrading my dental care, I could feel the difference. Brushing my teeth used to be a hurried task. When I gently brush in small circles, I’m in the present, my shoulders relax, my breath slows down, and my jaw eases. The x-rays showed that I also grind my teeth a lot so throughout the day, I check in and unclench my jaw.

After that painful reminder, I’m grateful for the healthy teeth that I do have because now I have a referral to an endodontist (root canal specialist) and I regret not upgrading my dental care sooner.

Here’s the story of how I healed my tooth pain. Warning! I mention pus, it’s kind of gross and kind of cool.

Since my filling fell out I’m usually pretty good with my teeth, I don’t eat a lot of sugar and I floss every night. The past month, though, I started slacking which turned out to be a big mistake. The other day I had a few Hershey’s kisses and soon after, I experienced that sharp nerve pain in my left jaw. It spread from my chin to my left temple and it was the kind of pain that had me pacing around in agony, unable to really do anything else. When I had a break from the pain, I made an appointment for the next day, and for the rest of the day, I focused on decreasing the pain with any alternative healing technique I knew. 

For starters, I couldn’t take any pain relievers because I get stomach aches and back spasms so I had to rely on the power of my brain and the therapies I’m familiar with like meditation therapy, crystal therapy, and energy therapy.

In my meditation teacher training, I learned several pain-relieving techniques and started sitting up and taking deep breaths. I thought about releasing the pain, and redirecting my attention to the right side of my jaw, reminding my body what it’s like to be pain-free. I added reiki energy by rubbing my hands and placing them on my face.

In my meditation, I grabbed my jade bracelet and held it against my jaw, teeth, and temple, and focused on transferring the energy out of my face. It was so painful, I didn’t know what to do and the beads were like a prayer to help deal with the pain. I focused on relaxing my nervous system so my body could prioritize healing. I imagined my immune system working, recognizing the fever process, and the cool jade beads felt like they were absorbing that excess heat.

The pain was so strong in my teeth that I started tapping on them to distract me. After tapping my teeth, the pain slowly dissipated up my face and settled to a dull ache. I thought the tapping helped by moving the tooth slightly and didn’t think much about it, I was happy that the pain had subsided.

That night I felt a strange pimple appear above my left ear. I sat up and pinched it on habit. It wasn’t painful but it was gross. I didn’t connect the dots until my dentist mentioned that the pain was due to my root canal and the pus from the infection had to go somewhere. I think that’s why the pain went away, it transferred the pus at my tooth’s root, up to my left temple, and out through my skin, amazing.

Looking back at what I did when the pain stopped and the nervous action of tapping on my teeth, I remembered that tapping is a healing technique. It’s usually used around the body like on the heart for confidence or on the mind for focus. Here I witnessed that tapping on root canal pain made a difference.

The meditation, reiki, and crystals helped me deal with the pain but I think that the tapping moved the pain through my bodily processes. I’m grateful that I learned these techniques because I was able to heal in a short 8 hours and successfully prevent emergency root canal treatment.

What helped was the belief that I could at least reduce the pain and help my body heal itself. I feel empowered to take care of myself if something happens, I can stay calm and perhaps speed up the healing process.

April 9th, 2024