fucking ow

[pauraque_bk]

Still working the toothache remedies, and also got the dentist to score me some vicodin. I wonder why tooth pain gets so blindingly intense... what's the evolutionary value there? In the absence of modern dentistry wouldn't it just be a source of disabling pain for tons of the population? All the time in egyptology you hear about mummies with severely decayed and abcessed teeth (partly because of the environment; sand would get in their food and cause dental wear and tear), which boggles my mind. I'd rather have them all pulled out than that, though the prospect of having damaged teeth extracted without anesthesia is a bit daunting.

Maybe proximity to the face/brain/"self" makes it seem worse than it is? I don't know. God fucking damn it though.

Comments

[aunty_marion]

I have frequently opined that whoever thought it was a good idea to design nerves into teeth was a sadist.

[pauraque]

After the exchange with skywaterblue I checked wikipedia's article on pain for other theories on its purpose, and found: It is not clear what the survival benefit of some extreme forms of pain (e.g. toothache) might be, and the intensity of some forms of pain (for example as a result of injury to fingernails or toenails) seem to be out of all proportion to any survival benefits.

*throws up hands*