Wednesday, October 5, 2011

#5 - The pain, it lingers!

Warning:  whinge about to begin.

Two Friday's ago, I was in the car with Dad, my sister and my sister in law.  We were headed out together for a daddy daughter date.  Our activity for the evening was pasta making (which by the way was awesome).  I was super hungry and it would be a couple of hours before the pasta was ready to eat, so I made myself some toast and was eating it in the car.  I swallowed a mouthful, and something sharp brushed up against my tongue.  My tongue went a searching in my mouth for that sharp thing.  I couldn't believe it.  

My filling had come out.  Again.

This tooth has given me more curry then a tooth ever should.  Let me explain.  About 6 years ago, I had a Root Canal on that tooth, much to the displeasure of my dentist.  She wanted to extract the tooth from the get go.  I'll show you which one and why.


Apparently I don't "need" that tooth.  But I am precious and I was not ready to part with a tooth at the ripe age of 20.  So I pushed for the Root Canal, and I got it!  $1200 later I walked away happy and with all my teeth intact.

One year on, the filling fell out.  Dentist fixed it.  Then it fell out again another year or two later.  Dentist fixed it.  Somewhere along the way, my original tooth was getting smaller and smaller, and she wasn't building up the filling high to make contact with the lower tooth - which was fine.  Filling fell out for the third time, and this time when she patched it up, she really took the tooth down short, and it was only a little above my gum.  Of course all along she still wanted to extract the stupid tooth haha.

So that brings me back to eating toast two Friday's ago.  I almost cried.  I thought all the troubles with this tooth were over!  I called my Dentist the next day and lucky me, she was on holidays and I couldn't get in with her for 11 days!!  I just drank a glass of cement and hardened up.  

So today was D day.  I really like my Dentist.  She is super cool and fun and it's always a shame that we are catching up with her hands in my mouth, or when there's drills and suction happening.  Not the most ideal way to fill people in with the events of life, but we do what we can.  

This afternoon I walked in, slightly nervous.  I sat down in the super comfy squishy chair and began rambling something like this:  

"I am a little bit nervous because 'the devil tooth' has showed its ugly head again and you are going to want to extract it and I am going to say no and you are going to have to try and save it and you are going to say you don't have enough time and I am going to say it is too expensive and I am poor".  She cracked up, told me to shut up and let her have a look.

Considering this story is already long, I'm going to jump to the point now.  She saved my tooth.  She is my hero.  But the saving of a tooth came for a price.

A monetary price.

A pain price.

I can handle the monetary price, I was kinda expecting to spend a small fortune one it.  But the pain price?  This part I was not expecting because afterall, this is a Root Canal tooth, and it no longer has nerves in it.  How I was wrong!!  She tried a new procedure on me, where she removed part of my root canal, and inserted a fiberglass rod into the canal, which was tall enough outside my tooth to also build a steadier filling around.  Technical stuff.

My neck is sore, my jaw is bruised along with my cheek from being yanked open as wide as humanly possible, the canal where the rod was inserted is ridiculously sore and my gum is swollen.  Not to mention the bleeding and cut up gums.  

Waaah waaaah waaah.  Come on pain killers, KICK IN!!

Whinge finished.

So do tell me about your last trip to the Dentist?  Did you leave with a smile?  An empty wallet?  Toothless?


Christy
PS:  Don't forget my giveaway ends tomorrow night!!

1 comment:

The Creative Beast said...

OH! you poor thing! That is just awful and unfortunate that you've had so many problems with just that one tooth =-(

I've been pretty lucky so far and I liked my dentist, but since I've been laid off, I no longer have insurance to cover visits, so I'm not sure if I can afford a trip at the end of the year when I'm due. but since he's a good dentist, he'd be worth a full paying visit =-)