Tomorrow at 9 a.m. I will have my first root canal. My dentist will perform the procedure by drilling into my tooth and removing the decayed material along with the nerve. He will fill in the empty root canal with an inert material, cover it up, and I will return for a crown. Thank God I will be given Novocain. The procedure is expected to last an  hour. I plan to rest and eat soft foods for the next few days.

Before I left on my first cruise, I wrote an essay telling how I thought the cruise would go, followed by other essays telling what the cruise was really like. Now I’ll do the same thing.

Here’s what I think the root canal will be like:

1. No pain.
2. An hour long.
3. Some discomfort from the sound and vibrations of the drilling, but bearable.
4. No major pain immediately following the procedure.
5. A good feeling when it is over.

I will continue this tomorrow, to let you know what it was like.

I am back!

Here is the breakdown:

1. Only a dull pain when the filling was inserted at the end of the procedure.
2. An hour – just as the dentist predicted.
3. Very little discomfort from the drilling, which surprisingly lasted a short time. It may have helped that, during the drilling, I imagined holding my Magic Bullet blender next to my face as I made my morning smoothie. The hardest part of the procedure was holding my mouth open for an hour – and that wasn’t very hard.
4. The 800mg ibuprofen pill the dentist gave me has already begun to relieve the dull pain – just one hour since the root canal was over.
5. A great feeling now that it’s over. My dentist, Dr. Rosenthal, is terrific. Besides being a wonderful human being, he calmed me with his “chairside manner” by describing the blow-by-blow action during my first root canal.

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com