Dentistry...

It was an early start for me today because I was taking Mum to the dentist.  She normally manages this quite happily on her own but she knew that she was having a tooth out today and I had suggested she really shouldn't drive afterwards.

It was an uneventful run down to Emba and I arrived in plenty of time to get Mum to her appointment across town at 9.30am.  Much more uneventful than my trip home when Kenny seemed to be swathed in a cloak of invisibility as about three cars did some kamikaze manouevres which nearly took me out but which I thankfully avoided.

Trips to the dentist now entail gloving and masking up - or at least it does for all but the one woman with the beautifully coiffed hair who clearly felt the rules did not apply to her - I am not being racist but I would put money on her being Eastern Bloc if you get my drift.  A bit irritating to say the least particularly as we arrived early and Mum went in late so we were sat for well over an hour with our glasses steaming up and Mum had decided it best not to have her hearing aids in so conversation was nigh on impossible.

In the end she had two teeth out which came as a bit of a shock and will have to manage until September before they begin on a permanent solution to her gnashers.   She was advised that for the next two days at least she was to have no dairy, no eggs, no very hot or very cold food which limits what you can consume to say the least!!  We went off in search of tins of soup which, when temperatures are nudging 40 degrees are extremely hard to find.  Worse than that the antibiotics prescribed were not covered by GESY (the Cypriot National Health System) so purchased over the counter came to 25 euros 😡.

The trip to the dentist today got me thinking about when I went as a child and I was sure I was given some pink stuff to drink which we referred to as cocaine - COCAINE????? surely not? but actually YES COCAINE.  Fortunately this highly addictive and toxic substance has been superseded by Novocain which is equally as effective in terms of anaesthetic properties but not addictive nor toxic!  Linguists reading might be interested to know that Anaesthesia comes from the Greek meaning "without sensation").

By the time I left Mum she was feeling less groggy but a bit sorry for herself obviously but there was nothing more I could do having made sure she had soft food available.  I said I would phone her later to check on how she was feeling which I did and she was somewhat concerned about the fact that the cavities were still bleeding.  I did some research on good old tinty-web and found this...

...If you have a lot of bleeding, bite on a regular tea bag. The tannic acid in the tea aids in forming a blood clot. Bite on the gauze or the tea bag until the bleeding stops. Slight oozing of blood on the first day is normal.

Who knew???