Why I Pulled Two of My Own Teeth Out

Pain. That's where we'll start. Not your regular, everyday advil will cure it kind of pain. No, not even vicodin or any of the other weird pain pills I was prescribed. Maybe a horse tranquilizer would have helped, or even the stuff they used to take down that T-REX in Jurassic Park 2...

Many will say tooth pain is possibly one of the worst pains you can ever feel. No ladies, you're right; I can't experience childbirth BUT I have had kidney stones and a pretty uncomfortable colonoscopy (gross) and I can concur with the tooth pain. Just watch that Oragel commercial with the woman talking about her impacted tooth, she'll tell you. However, despite her claims, oragel won't do the trick I'm afraid.

Two molars. Both infected. Both abscessed after my dentist drilled on them trying to fill them. Thanks dental guy.

I could never imagine in my wildest dreams pulling a tooth out myself, heck even at the dentist with Novocaine it's a pretty scary experience. But here in lies my problem. I didn't have the option of having the teeth removed at a dentist. I'd spent pretty much all my moo-la getting them filled before they abscessed and, with no medical insurance it was either a $1000 route canal or a $400 extraction for each tooth. I'm a single dad, recently unemployed so neither of those options were even options. The only option I had was suffer the pain for a month and save or remove it myself.

I'm originally from England and contrary to popular belief, we do have dentists over there. No, we don't all become indoctrinated in the school of pulling our own teeth in the backyard shed with a pair of pliers when we're young. So, I didn't get the idea from there. It was just too much pain for too long. Something had to give.

I guess you get kinda manic, a little crazy after being in pain for a week or so. You know, the same gnawing, your gum's gonna explode kind of pain. That must be what happened to me. The fact that I was too broke to even consider going to a dentist only added to my desperation.

I'm not going to go on some tirade about how heath care SUCKS in the USA, about how nearly 1 in 5 Americans have no health insurance to speak of, a number that has only increased in the last decade. That's for Michael Moore to do. But something has to give. Well I guess I could have kept my medical and dental insurance going through COBRA after I lost my job, I mean...it was only $700 a month to keep the same crappy coverage, everyone can afford that, right?

NO crazy details about the whole process here but needless to say it involved locking myself in the bathroom for about two hours with a pair of grip pliers. And no, the pliers were not sterilized. You can imagine I wasn't thinking too clearly here. But no alcohol was involved, sadly.
Despite the pain and near disaster it could have been, after wards there was pain no more, only peace on earth! Hallelujah!
I did it all without leaving a piece in there or having any other gross complications.

All I keep thinking is what would drive an average, normally sane man to do this to himself? I keep coming back to two things, desperation and money. Desperation at being in excruciating pain for too long and at having no dental plan and money because, well I didn't have enough to do this the proper way!
The sad thing is I can see myself doing it again if I have to. And that time I probably won't be as lucky.

What worries me know is that I think I actually traumatized myself so badly while doing this, I need to get therapy...you just can't win at this game.