Grin and bear it

The tooth kept bothering me, but my dentist had X-rayed the tooth and there was no sign of infection beneath the shallow filling. When the pain got worse, she theorized neuralgia, telling me stories of patients who insisted on having one tooth after the other pulled, in a vain attempt to relieve the pain. Meanwhile I was gradually losing weight, as every attempt to chew brought on spasms of trismus. ("Merry Trismus," she said, between clenched teeth.)