OK, so the trip was not so good. It turns out that it is not my jaw, but a bad tooth. It was killing me all through Dubai, the flight, and waiting in NYC. I called my dentist from NYC and arranged an appointment. I got off of the plane at national airport and went straight there. He looked around and sent me to another doctor, one that only does root canals. I went there the next day. With a little (painful) exploration, he narrowed it down to one tooth. It has a vertical crack in it and probably has an abscess forming there too. His opinion was that the crack was too severe to do a root canal, so he recommends extraction…
I have to go to my dentist on monday and get this thing out. I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I’ve heard about implants and bridges, but I’m not sure how much they cost or how necessary they are. I’m also wondering if it is something I could have done back in Yemen. I really don’t want anyone there doing any surgery on me, but they could probably do an implant or bridge, it’s probably much cheaper there… Anyway, I’ll talk to my dentist tomorrow about my options. In the meantime, I’m on some serious pain killers. They make me very sleepy and I can’t think straight. With any luck I’ll be off of these things in a couple of days.