This has been an exciting week! NOT!
I woke up about 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning with a terrible toothache! This is unusual for me since I lost all but 6 of my permanent teeth 42 years ago! That situation is a whole different post...just suffice to say that I seldom get toothaches!
However, this one was a doozer! I wish I knew how our body parts just know when it is a week-end and help is not just around the corner. Now I know that my dear dentist has a 24 hour service but since I am no longer employed that means I no longer have dental insurance and that 24 hour thing is expensive. So, I decided to "tough it out" until Monday morning.
It was a loooong time to Monday morning. The time was spent in various ways which included moaning, tears, sleeping, Vicodin (thank goodness I had some left over from my foot surgery) and in general, being miserable.
Monday came. I called the dentist. I went in immediately. He took one look at me and said that it needed a specialist. It needed an Endodontist! This particular tooth holds one side of my partial and my "dear dentist" said we only had "one chance" to get this right and he would rather have a "professional" do it. So I call the Endodontist that he referred me to and they informed me that their first opening was on Thursday!!!!
So, I said "okay, but I'm driving over to your office now and I want lots of drugs to take until Thursday!" They immediately changed their mind and told me to "come right in!" I did!
I needed a root canal! Goodie! After 500 shots of Novocaine (okay, it wasn't that many but it FELT like that many) the "Endo guy" tells me he is going to drill a little hole through my crown and do the root canal through the hole. That sounds good to me....until I hear those dreaded words "oh no!" "Endo guy" looks at me and says "I have bad news and good news." Like I really want to hear this with my mouth dumb and somebody playing bongos in my head! He say "the bad news is that your tooth has fractured...the good news is that if you have to have a fracture, this is a good one." What he means by a "fracture" is that my tooth has broken off at the gum line with half my tooth in the crown...which is now in his hand...and the other half in my mouth. I failed to see any good news in this development.
Three hours and $860.00 later (I was asked if I wanted to pay "cash or check!) I left "Endo guy" with my broken tooth in a little baggy and my partial in a pink cup and my head throbbing and my mouth looking like something out of a Disney cartoon...a scary cartoon! I head back to "dear dentist" with my little goodies. He looks at them and assures me that we can "do something with this" and I should come in tomorrow when I am feeling better! "Endo guy" told me to go home and take some Ibuprofen and I would feel fine. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Tuesday I go back to "dear dentist" feeling horrible because when the Novocaine wore off I had pain the Ibuprofen never heard of! However, I still had some Vicodin from the foot surgery so I stayed pretty quiet and out of it!
"Dear dentist" tells me he is going to drill a hole in the part of the tooth that is still in my mouth and cement a steel post in there and then drill an absolutely perfectly matching hole in the part of my tooth that is still in the crown and then cement them together and everything will be wonderful! It sounds so easy when they talk about it!
After 500 more shots of Novocaine (really, I think there were that many!) and 2 hours in the dentist chair, I have a tooth in my mouth and I have my partial attached to it! Of course I can't feel a thing...so everything feels fine...even though, once again, I have a pretty peculiar look! This time "dear dentist" gives me a prescription for an antibiotic AND a prescription for Vicodin which he encourages me to take liberally so that I can get on top of the pain...which is sure to come after the Novocaine wears off! I do love "dear dentist!" And, he makes an appointment for this morning so that he can "check things out."
I live on Vicodin yesterday and this morning I go to see "dear dentist" to "check things out." He thinks things look great and we will let this all heal and then he will have to make a new partial so that there won't be so much pressure on poor broken toothies. Oops, I forgot to mention...we had this same scenario on the other tooth 4 years ago! We made an appointment for October 6th because he feels my bone pain will be under control by then! I didn't mention that this was only September 17th because he gave me another prescription for Vicodin! You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you!
Okay, I feel so much better now sharing my wonderful adventure on my blog. I think it is time to take an antibiotic and a Vicodin...hope this stuff isn't too addicting! But really, I AM feeling so much better but that's only because I haven't even asked "dear dentist" about his bill yet!
I woke up about 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning with a terrible toothache! This is unusual for me since I lost all but 6 of my permanent teeth 42 years ago! That situation is a whole different post...just suffice to say that I seldom get toothaches!
However, this one was a doozer! I wish I knew how our body parts just know when it is a week-end and help is not just around the corner. Now I know that my dear dentist has a 24 hour service but since I am no longer employed that means I no longer have dental insurance and that 24 hour thing is expensive. So, I decided to "tough it out" until Monday morning.
It was a loooong time to Monday morning. The time was spent in various ways which included moaning, tears, sleeping, Vicodin (thank goodness I had some left over from my foot surgery) and in general, being miserable.
Monday came. I called the dentist. I went in immediately. He took one look at me and said that it needed a specialist. It needed an Endodontist! This particular tooth holds one side of my partial and my "dear dentist" said we only had "one chance" to get this right and he would rather have a "professional" do it. So I call the Endodontist that he referred me to and they informed me that their first opening was on Thursday!!!!
So, I said "okay, but I'm driving over to your office now and I want lots of drugs to take until Thursday!" They immediately changed their mind and told me to "come right in!" I did!
I needed a root canal! Goodie! After 500 shots of Novocaine (okay, it wasn't that many but it FELT like that many) the "Endo guy" tells me he is going to drill a little hole through my crown and do the root canal through the hole. That sounds good to me....until I hear those dreaded words "oh no!" "Endo guy" looks at me and says "I have bad news and good news." Like I really want to hear this with my mouth dumb and somebody playing bongos in my head! He say "the bad news is that your tooth has fractured...the good news is that if you have to have a fracture, this is a good one." What he means by a "fracture" is that my tooth has broken off at the gum line with half my tooth in the crown...which is now in his hand...and the other half in my mouth. I failed to see any good news in this development.
Three hours and $860.00 later (I was asked if I wanted to pay "cash or check!) I left "Endo guy" with my broken tooth in a little baggy and my partial in a pink cup and my head throbbing and my mouth looking like something out of a Disney cartoon...a scary cartoon! I head back to "dear dentist" with my little goodies. He looks at them and assures me that we can "do something with this" and I should come in tomorrow when I am feeling better! "Endo guy" told me to go home and take some Ibuprofen and I would feel fine. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Tuesday I go back to "dear dentist" feeling horrible because when the Novocaine wore off I had pain the Ibuprofen never heard of! However, I still had some Vicodin from the foot surgery so I stayed pretty quiet and out of it!
"Dear dentist" tells me he is going to drill a hole in the part of the tooth that is still in my mouth and cement a steel post in there and then drill an absolutely perfectly matching hole in the part of my tooth that is still in the crown and then cement them together and everything will be wonderful! It sounds so easy when they talk about it!
After 500 more shots of Novocaine (really, I think there were that many!) and 2 hours in the dentist chair, I have a tooth in my mouth and I have my partial attached to it! Of course I can't feel a thing...so everything feels fine...even though, once again, I have a pretty peculiar look! This time "dear dentist" gives me a prescription for an antibiotic AND a prescription for Vicodin which he encourages me to take liberally so that I can get on top of the pain...which is sure to come after the Novocaine wears off! I do love "dear dentist!" And, he makes an appointment for this morning so that he can "check things out."
I live on Vicodin yesterday and this morning I go to see "dear dentist" to "check things out." He thinks things look great and we will let this all heal and then he will have to make a new partial so that there won't be so much pressure on poor broken toothies. Oops, I forgot to mention...we had this same scenario on the other tooth 4 years ago! We made an appointment for October 6th because he feels my bone pain will be under control by then! I didn't mention that this was only September 17th because he gave me another prescription for Vicodin! You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you!
Okay, I feel so much better now sharing my wonderful adventure on my blog. I think it is time to take an antibiotic and a Vicodin...hope this stuff isn't too addicting! But really, I AM feeling so much better but that's only because I haven't even asked "dear dentist" about his bill yet!
3 comments:
Cringe!! You're a better person than I, Gunga Din!
I have a dental appt on the 25th for cleaning. Famous last words.
Yipes. Poor dear! I too have a cleaning coming up soon, and for the past two appointments haven't had any problems that needed attention. Alas, I fear I haven't been a good enough person for this to continue! Is there dental Karma?
Thanks to you both for the "cyber sympathy!" A week later...all is well...I hope!
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