Babybel
Posted By Judith on 28th October 2020
Several years ago I had a small fleshy wart on my arm. It didn’t hurt and wasn’t unsightly but it did catch on short-sleeved shirts which was just plain annoying.
On one of my rare visits to the doctor about something else, I mentioned it to her. “My granny would have told me to tie a bit of cotton around it and let it wither and die,” I said laughingly. “Well, on this occasion your granny would have been right” she replied.
And so that’s exactly what I did, and it worked, proving that sometimes the old homespun methods are still the best.
Fast forward several years and I broke a tooth. It had been giving me trouble for a long time and I knew it would probably have to come out at some point, but had been putting it off.
It just gave up the ghost one morning and half of it disintegrated into my cornflakes. I was actually on the point of suing Aldi, until I realised it was actually parts of my own tooth I was choking on.
I rang the dentist, but couldn’t get an appointment for 2 weeks. Although I wasn’t in pain, my biggest fear was that what was left of the tooth would deteriorate further and he’d end up having to dig it out, either that or it could get infected.
I mentioned this to my niece, who suggested getting a temporary filling kit from the chemist to protect the root and the nerve. (I didn’t even know such things existed.) “Or,” she said “you could just use the wax jacket off a Babybel”
And so I did, and it worked like a dream.
Paramedics and grannies know a lot of stuff.
I attended my appointment and received the news I was expecting. The tooth would have to come out and it might be quite difficult. “You won’t have to put me to sleep will you?” I asked nervously. “It used to be a choice between ‘gas’ and ‘cocaine’ the last time I had anything like this done”.
“No” came the reply, “we haven’t administered general anaesthetic in our surgeries for years”.
Relief.
And so on Friday, October 16th at 8am I went for my first tooth extraction in 30+ years. I was apprehensive to say the least. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes and although it was uncomfortable and unpleasant, it didn’t actually hurt.
I’ve been very lucky in getting a dentist following my move, I wouldn’t have wanted to pull it out myself with plyers or tied with string to the cupboard door handle!!
