No root canal!

My last morning in Taipei, I met Aunt Karen and Uncle Peter at their hotel, from which we took a taxi to La Cisterna, the restaurant Aunt Jeanette had chosen for lunch. Although it’s in a basement, It’s quite an elegant place, with a waterfall + koi pond outside and tasteful interior décor. Clearly, it’s one of Aunt Jeanette’s favorite places – she knew the manager and exactly what she wanted to order =P

With slightly less pain in my tooth, I was able to enjoy most of the meal, a smorgasbord of delicious flavors and textures. I think my favorite was the super-tender egg-y tofu and vegetable soup, although the sesame pancake with red bean paste was good too. It was also super cute at the end when they brought out the orange slices/cherry tomatoes – the orange slices were cut into bunny shapes!

Hoppin' around the tomatoes

After lunch, we simply went back to the hotel to pick up my luggage and put me on a bus for the airport – note to anyone going to Taipei, the airport is about an hour’s bus ride away from the actual city, so plan your transition time accordingly! The flight back to Macau was mildly painful even after popping some Motrin/Tylenol, because of the extreme changes in air pressure, but I made it through.

This morning I called Dr. Yang, a dentist that the ELC director had recommended, and he said I could come this afternoon. I had gone to see him in December when I was starting to get annoyed about my teeth’s sensitivity to cold, and at that point he had warned I had a lot of minor cavities that would be better off filled-in sooner rather than later. I had declined to do any that time, wanting to consult my dentist back in the US, but now this was an emergency =P

I showed Dr. Yang the x-ray from Taiwan, he poked around for a bit, and we discussed treatment options for a while. The conclusion was that we should first try filling in the two minor cavities in that tooth. If that didn’t work, he would try taking out the filling from August to see if there was further decay underneath. If that didn’t help, I would probably need a root canal. I opted for the top-notch filling, the porcelain, and he went to work. After the first filling, he used his camera-on-a-stick to show me what he had done, and he actually found a third spot around the back of the tooth, where it’s most difficult for a brush to reach. He filled in that one too, and when he was done, I rinsed with cool water…

…and felt no pain whatsoever.

It was seriously amazing given that I hadn’t been able to drink cold things without a straw or rinse with cold water for the past three months (at least). I commented on this mini-miracle, and Dr. Yang just smiled. He sent me off with some anti-inflammatory medicine to ease any lingering problems, a firm reminder to brush/floss more often, and a little extra happy skip in my step that I wouldn’t be needing a root canal, at least not immediately. That tooth will probably continue to give me problems for the rest of my life, but for now, I’m just happy I don’t have to use hot water to brush my teeth.