Dental Diaries - Part One

OK, working on knocking another major "to do" off my list, getting my teeth back in a state of repair. I thought it had only been two years since I went to the dentist (i.e. when our dental insurance ran out), but it has actually been three years (gulp). I called to make an appointment to have mine and Sparky's teeth cleaned at the same time, but since I was in pain they agreed to see me earlier.

So Monday afternoon I go in to see my new dentist, who is endorsed by my mother and only like a mile from out house, unlike my last dentist, who was about 18 miles away (hubby's family dentist). Nice offices, nice staff, nice dentist. So far, so good. Got an exam, lots of x-rays, and was told to come back the next morning for my cleaning, come in early Wednesday to get started on the construction work, and to see his endodontic specialist to check a root canal to see if it was causing the pain on my left side.

Got the cleaning the next morning (only got like 3 hours sleep, had to be there at 9am), they didn't have nitrous! Oh well, that's the best part and keeps me from clenching my entire body while they are scraping metal objects on my sensitive teeth. But it wasn't bad after all, even for three years of plaque. The hygienist used an ultrasonic cleaner and then only actually scraped a little bit and my teeth were actually whiter looking for the first time in my life. Got home, called the endodontist, they have an opening the next day... at 8:30 am. OK, gotta take it, get this crap all over with ASAP. Then I napped for several hours, my poor jaw aching from TMJ from keeping my mouth open just for the cleaning.

Got up at 7:30 am today, the cat actually woke me just before she stepped on my alarm clock and turned it off. I was only 10 minutes late to the endodontist's office (that's good for me), really ritzy place, nice view, very quiet... His assistant gets me situated and takes an x-ray of the bad side, which then immediately pops up on a 19 inch computer monitor, I'm impressed. They don't have nitrous either, dammit, soemthing about an OSHA regulation about having to vent the area, grrrr.. The doctor comes in, thumps on my teeth, doesn't get a good enough reaction so he takes a little metal rod and sprays it to freeze it and tells me to let him know it I feel anything when he touches my teeth. I actually came about halfway out of my chair, found the problem!

Not the tooth with the three year old root canal, but the bicuspid in front of it.... The suspected tooth (with recent root canal and crown) is decaying beneath the lovely white crown, though, which explains why the bottom has turned grey. But only one root canal is needed instead of having to redo the molar's existing root canal, which I guess is a good thing. Eventually I will have no roots left in any of my teeth (hey, no pain!).

So I asked if he should do the new root canal or my dentist, same price, he's can do it right now, so I let the specialist do it. Quick and easy, only one canal, done in less than an hour. $750 bites the dust... Then back home for an hour, and off to my other dentist, who seems a bit peeved that the other doc got to do the root canal, but hey, he referred me. He got me back, though, the next exciting event was drilling out the temporary filling the endodontist has just put in like an hour before. Then he went to work on the upper tooth just above it, a gold crown which I had chewed through and was also apparently rapidly decaying beneath the crown. I really do brush every day, I just also grind my teeth and have bad genetics, must be the British part of my DNA...

So several hours and another $1900 later, I've got two temporary crowns and get to go back next week to work on both my lower left and upper right sides to replace two more useless crowns (sigh), more money down the drain. Hopefully the new crowns will last more than three years... Jeez, xylocaine injections in both sides of my mouth, that should be attractive. I came home and went to bed again after todays ordeals were finished, only to awake with all of my codeine worn off and the root canal area throbbing. But since all I'd had to eat all day was an Atkins shake, I had to maneuver another one down before I could take any more meds. After a few hours (and several more pills), I actually managed to eat some soy ice cream and chicken salad with success. I did plan ahead and make sure I had liquid and some soft food available. The throbbing stopped pretty quickly, thank goodness, years ago, back when they had to do root canals in two stages, I thought I was going to die from the throbbing when the local anaesthesia wore off. And I didn't have any actual narcotics at the time, I plan ahead now, just in case...

My jaw is still semi-locked, I've bitten the crap out of the inside of my mouth, my hands have swollen up and are itching like crazy (probably from the dozen or so injections I got today), but at least I'm halfway there. "Three to four weeks" before my crowns come in, but I'm hoping I've gotten rid of what was most likely a major source of the pain in my jaw (and probably some of my ear & sinus problems on that side). So what else did I do after I got up this evening? Watched TV and then decided to file a bag full of dusty papers in my bedroom. No, I don't know why either and it was not easy with my hands swollen, but filing is comforting to me and it distracted me for a few hours. And got my major bedroom dusting obstacle up and off the floor, which made me feel better :-)

After the teeth are finished, on to working on my vision (RGP contacts are the plan so far), then maybe my poor car (if Sparky hasn't divorced me yet, I can't help it... at least HE has good teeth). Getting loopy now, must go shower before I pass out...

Posted by Morticia at June 15, 2004 07:10 PM | TrackBack