Phantom tooth pains

So ... did I tell you about having a screw put in my jaw? No? Really? Well, compared to having both of one's jaws re-alligned, ain't no big thang. But ... I did have a screw put in my jaw.
That's right. For the implant. Last December, I went to my orthodontist - no, no, no. Let me go back further.
Last October, I went to an orthodontist and she took my last molar on my bottom right side out. It was tough. She said that it wasn't the hardest (like my Japanese dentist had said it was) extraction that she'd ever had to do but she would definitely put it in the top ten. I mean, she's got her foot up on the chair, and her assistant has me in a headlock and she is PULLING this tooth out. I guess my bone is so dense that it's difficult to extract my teeth. As if this wasn't hard enough, the fire alarm in the building went off right in the middle of her pulling it out. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said that we weren't leaving in the middle of this.
So it came out, I lived with a gaping hole for a couple of months and in December, I went back. This is when she screwed a metal rod into my jaw. She numbed it up good; drilled a hole into my jaw to start off; and then put a little metal pin on the end of a drill and slowly but surely drove it in. She told me the diameter at the time but hell if I remember it.
Anyhoo, I'm sitting there with my ipod on while she's doing this and I'm fine. I have a pretty good pain tolerance and dental work has never really bothered me, so I'm fine. Then I notice that she's got a bit of a furrowed brow. And her drill is making this whining noise, as if it's trying to turn but can't. I'm thinking, wow, I must REALLY have dense bone. So I shut off my ipod and she explains that she can't back the metal pin out. The drill won't reverse. She doesn't think it's a problem but she wanted to be sure that she could back it out, in case she needed to reallign the bolt in my jaw. Plus, it's gone in just a little too far. So their only alternative now is to back it out by hand. Ok, well, whatever, do your job, I think.
The orthodontist puts the drill away and picks up a small L-shaped tool, only 2-3 inches long. The assistant puts me in a headlock. The orthodontist puts the tool in my mouth. And she RATCHETS the metal pin back out.
RATCHETS!!!
That I could not take. My head is shaking back and forth from the ratcheting. Her hand is moving back and forth in my mouth. It's making that ratcheting NOISE. It was like nails on a chalkboard.
I got through it. I mouth breathed through the whole thing. I clenched the side of the chair. I didn't think that would be the thing to get me, but it was.
Once the pin was in, they had to let the gum heal around it. Then 4 months later, they use an impression of my original tooth to make my new tooth, which they'll screw to the top of the metal pin. My regular (dreamy) dentist does this.
Today I went in for some preliminaries. Right now, I have a temporary tooth made from PVC pipe (his words). It's molded in the shape of my original tooth, but they had to grind it down to fit my mouth. Apparently, not having a tooth in that space for so long, my tongue and cheek have gotten used to it. Now it feels like my tongue and cheek are swollen because they're butting up against it. The dentist told me that I'd get used to it.
The hardest thing to get used to is chewing on BOTH sides of my mouth again. All day long, I kept catching myself chewing on my left side. Then when I made myself chew equally, it just felt weird.
Well, in a couple of weeks, they'll check it again, and in a month, my permanent tooth will be in. And then I'll have to think of new reasons to go see my handsome dentist.