Ow..ow...oww

I've suffered all sorts of pain in my life. I have not, as yet, experienced a broken bone but I have twisted both of my ankles, suffered from a trapped nerve in the base of my spine, had chest pain, earaches, migraines even gone through the horrible trauma of gallstones moving in the bile duct and the pain that creates is indescribable.

However, they all pale into insignificance when compared with toothache.

I haven't been the best at looking after my teeth, but so a dentist once told me, once a tooth is filled - that's *it* - you will forever be getting toothache with that one tooth alone, once every 5-10 years or so, as the tooth decays around the filling leaving you in danger of an infection in the hole it makes. Yuk.

I get toothache every couple of years. The latest is a humdinger comparable to the pain you get when you have an infection in the gum (yep, had that too). The dentist dug out the filling of the offending tooth, filled it in again (and topped it with white stuff which I've never had done before) and informed me that the tooth was approaching the point where it could be repaired no more. Apparently, the tooth had collapsed and the gum had started to grow in and around it, hence the pain.

And because of the vibration and teeth grinding at night, I have suffered pain of epic proportions for the last 6 days. I should go back to the dentist, but I have this other problem - a tooth that should be crowned but I can't make up my mind.

I am not scared of dentists - I have been in and out of dentists since I was around 9 years old, when I had 28 adult teeth and my wisdom teeth were starting to come through. The overcrowding in my jaw meant that 4 teeth had to be removed and braces put in my teeth (the ones that you can remove, not the horrible welded in ones which make you look like Jaws from James Bond). No, perhaps the most painful part is paying the bill, which, although I can claim back 75% from my insurance still makes me gulp like reacting to the taste clove oil which has accidentally slipped down the gullet.

Still - that's why we're driving around a Citroen BX and he drives a Mazda soft top.