Obi And The Root Canal
Disclaimer: If you recognize them, they belong to George Lucas. If you don't, they're mine. All mine. Though if you ask nicely, I may let you play with my creations. *G*
Warning: Not for squeamish or faint of heart. I would say about a 7 on my gross-o-meter. But closer to 3 or 4 for the average population.
Chapter 1
Obi-Wan tossed and turned all night, not getting any sleep. His tooth hurt like hell. Weird, it hadn't bothered him 'til now, and he had chipped it six months ago on a training mission. But now it was killing him. He had tried blocking out the pain, but the minute he fell asleep, it came back, jolting him awake. And now, the young Padawan was in agony. How could one little tooth cause so much trouble? he wondered.
The next morning at breakfast, his master, Qui-Gon, looked up at him, frowning. "What's wrong, Padawan? I could sense your pain all last night, and you look like you didn't sleep at all." Obi-Wan sighed, sitting in the chair on the other side of the small table. "It's my tooth, Master. It hurts like hell." Qui-Gon frowned again. "Which one is it? The one you chipped? Maybe you should finally see a dentist about it."
The look on Obi-Wan's face quickly resembled that of a young child who had just been caught raiding the candy jar. "No, Master. Anything but that! Not the dentist!! I'd rather suffer!!" Qui-Gon shook his head softly. "Alright, Obi-Wan. I won't force you. Though I do think it would be a good idea. That tooth may need to come out." "I'm not going," Obi said, stubborn, as he slowly, painfully ate his breakfast.
Obi-Wan had been hoping the pain would be over by the end of the day. He was wrong. And by the next morning, his upper lip had puffed out, as well as his nose. The pain was worse as well. Still, when Obi-Wan went into breakfast, Qui-Gon had a terrible time not laughing at his apprentice's appearance. "I think you should put some ice on that, Padawan. It will help the swelling go down." Obi-Wan nodded and put some ice into a cloth, holding it up to his nose and lip.
"I think I'm ready to go to the dentist now, Master," he said, softly. "Maybe when this is cleared up I'll be able to eat. Right now, though, my stomach is retching from the pain and I doubt I'll be able to chew anything." Qui-Gon nodded in understanding, then made some hot herbal tea for his apprentice. "Here, this should help a bit," he said, setting it in front of Obi-Wan, who nodded his thanks. "I'll make an appointment for you to see Dr. Harrod as soon as possible," he added.
Two days later, Obi-Wan sat in the chair in Dr. Harrod's office. Dr. Harrod was a kindly older man who made Obi-Wan as comfortable as he could. "Open wide, please," he said, pulling out his little mirror thing for looking behind teeth. Obi-Wan did as he was told, opening his mouth as wide as he could while the dentist looked inside for a moment, both behind his teeth and in front around the gums.
After looking, Dr. Harrod took a couple of x-rays of the problem tooth. "I'm afraid I can't do anything, this time," he said, looking at the x-rays. "The tooth has abscessed. There's puss pouring out of the gums, and the tooth has been pushed out of place. Would you like to see?" he asked Obi-Wan, reaching for the big mirror. Obi-Wan shook his head. "No thanks," he replied, starting to feel even more ill.
"I'm going to prescribe some penicillin. I want you to take it every six hours until it's done. And every hour, on the hour, I want you to hold hot salt water around the tooth. It needs to be as hot as you can stand, alright?" Obi-Wan made a face. "He's been drinking hot tea, mostly. And I've had him keep an ice-pack against the swelling," Qui-Gon said. Dr. Harrod nodded. "Hot tea will work as well, though hot salt water will work the best."
With that the dentist pulled out a small bottle of penicillin "Take two of these now," he said, pouring two of the pills into Obi-Wan's hands. "There's some water next to you to wash it down with. When this clears up, we're going to have to do a root canal to save that tooth. It's dead, and if we don't do the root canal, it will have to be pulled." "A…a….root canal?" Obi asked, not at all liking the sound of that.
"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt," Dr. Harrod quickly assured him. "And if it does, you can always just wave your hand for me to stop. We won't make the appointment now. We'll wait 'til the abscess clears up, alright?" Obi-Wan just nodded slightly. "Thank you, Doctor," Qui-Gon said. "I'll call you when it clears up. Come along, Obi-Wan." And with that they left the office.