I don’t know if I should call the dentist. You might reasonably ask how that could be – either one needs to or one does not. My situation is complicated by my frequent use of painkillers. Do I take them too often ? Undoubtedly. Do I have a problem ? Officially, no. Yes, I actually looked up the internationally accepted descriptions for those with dependencies on substances and I’m actually way short of the lines at this stage. But that’s not really the issue here.

No, I take them because things hurt. My jaw (TMJ pain), my joints (arthritis), my back (rheumatology say not arthritic so I have to assume some sort of postural/muscular thing), etc. etc. Some part of me is often malfunctioning. So last night, as I tried to sleep, my jaw was sore. I had flossed earlier and I realised I had probably done that because I was aware of an odd sensation from the area. So I wanted to give it time to settle. After an hour of discomfort, however, I had to take something to let me sleep. This morning, I was back-sore, and wanted to make today a cleaning day. If I don’t take pre-emptive meds, I’ll get half an hour in and be ruined, so today I have also been under the influence of medication. So now I am poking at my jaw and know it isn’t right, but cannot tell if I just need to keep the area clean and it will correct itself, or if there’s a real issue brewing.

I’m rubbish sometimes.