Well, the timebomb appears to have been released.

For those of you who don't know (and I can't imagine anyone who DOESN'T, considering how much I complain about this), I have a crazy tooth in the back of my mouth. When the tooth first came in, it had a "bubble" in it, or an uninfected cavity. They peeled back the skin to fill it before the tooth even arrived in my mouth.

Then after I switched dentists, before Ghana, the adult dentist said "that is a temporary crown, which is a ticking time bomb, and you absolutely can't go to Africa like that. But if we put a new one on, it might fall off at any time."

Then before I came to Korea, switching dentists again, this one said: "That new crown doesn't fit, you should have that fixed." The insurance appraised it at 1,000 dollars out of pocket, so I said "Hell no."

The past few days, my jaw and ear canal have been killing me. I wake up with this terrible ache that feels like there's a hole in my tooth. And that something under the crown (yeah the one that 'doesn't fit') is missing. I can't chew, I can't open my mouth all the way. When it started, I was really hoping it was an ear problem from my receding cold. But this morning I'm basically convinced that it's the tooth again. (And the bile taste is kind of driving me nuts.)

So I need to find somebody to yank it out. Preferably somebody who speaks English. And isn't going to charge me a lot. Because I don't have dental insurance, and I don't really think that my insurance is reliable anyway... (since it's American travel insurance, haha, OF COURSE). So I'm basically convinced that I'll need to pay out of pocket.

But it's not just the money that I'm irked about. It's just... the dentist. Is scary. And I don't want to go. And I have to have this thing pulled because it's only a money magnet and I'm just tired of it. Plus,it's not like I chew on it anyway, because it's been too fragile to do so for YEARS.

When it rains it pours. Welcome to being an adult, I guess. Can't just run home and say "Mommie, fix it."