Does eating watermelon cause problems?

Several weeks ago, I absentmindedly ate half a large round watermelon in one sitting. I was reading a book at the time and just scooping the pieces of watermelon, which I had cut up the night before, into my mouth without really registering how much I was consuming. When I realized that I had finished all the watermelon, I didn’t give it much thought and continued reading my book.

The next morning I woke up with a throbbing toothache in the upper right part of my mouth. It was the sort of sharp, piercing pain that made me wince and contort my jaw and face in a desperate attempt to minimize the pain, but to no avail; no matter what i did, the pain did not cease. I walked around the apartment trying to find some way to stub my toe, run my shin into the coffee table, drop a 50 pound weight onto my foot, with the hope of distracting my mind into focusing on another part of my body but I couldn’t find anything other distractions. All attention was on my aching tooth, gums and jaw and I could not escape it, so I had no choice but to reach for the medicine cabinet and swallow as many tylenol, ibuprofens and aspirins that I could get my eager hands on.

I hate taking medicine but for the next few days I took a mix of tylenol, ibuprofen and aspirins in a futile attempt to make the pain disappear. The drugs seem to lessen the intense sensation, but inevitably the pain always returned in full force a few hours later and then I would have to start all over again. In addition to the cocktail of drugs, I also tried grinding cloves and then mixing them with a bit of course salt and rubbing it into my gums and teeth. My experience lacked any scientific rigor or controls so I can not conclusively tell if the clove helped or made the situation worst. However, the pain did not go away, although there were a few isolated periods in the day when I felt as if relief were just around the bend, only to be surprised by another intense wave of pain.

This went on for about a week because I my tolerance for pain exceeds my tolerance for going to the dentist. I don’t mind going to the dentist for my biyearly teeth cleaning but for anything else, I just dread it. So I kept putting it off, hoping that the pain would go away by itself. Wouldn’t it be great if all problems would just go away by themselves. Well, the pain didn’t move on, instead it just changed in intensity and frequency. It appeared to lessen or perhaps I was just getting more acclimated to the pain, and then it would change direction and increase. The sharpest pain returned in full force about a week later, right after I bought another watermelon and ate it. That’s when the lightbulb went off and I thought, “I must have given myself a cavity by eating too many sweet watermelons.”

So, after another week of hoping that my toothache would go away, I finally went to the dentist today. Thankfully the dentist’s office was clean and they were well equipped with all sorts of fancy equipment. After I filled in the new patient form, they took a Polaroid photo of me (first time that’s ever happened to me). And then they escorted me into the treatment area and took an x-ray and photos of my tooth, mouth, and gums. A photographer with a large zoom camera took the pictures while one attendant wedged two plastic clippers into my mouth to separate and hold my lips apart. Now I know how they take those pictures that are included in medical journals and textbooks that show the teeth and gums so clearly, as if the person had misplaced their lips. I had to grind my teeth from left to right and then from right to left for another set of photos and then another attendant entered with a metal spatula-looking device, which she used to press down my tongue so that the photographer could snap a picture of the deep insides of my mouth. It was all a very unpleasant and strange experience.

Fortunately, I don’t have a cavity (what a relief) but unfortunately, it seems that I need a root canal (oh great). After explaining what he observed in the photos and the x-ray, the dentist handed me literature on root canals and explained the procedures. There are four separate treatments that are required, all totaling over $1,000. When I asked the dentist what would happen if I did not get a root canal, he replied, “The pain will eventually get worst.” So the question now is how much pain and inconvenience, (because I am able to eat only on the left side of my mouth) can I tolerate and for how long?

~ by Mishe on June 10, 2009.