Dental drama

Fake quote of the day:
"I don't see why people keep telling me to go to the dentist, baby." --A. Powers

Yesterday I had my six month dental checkup. I already knew one of my molars was cracked, but I'd been putting off getting it crowned until our insurance rolled over for the new year. So while I was already at the dentist, I decided to have the crown done.

Well, he started drilling my old filling out and, surprise surprise, the decay had snuck in through the crack in my tooth and was entirely too close to the nerve for just a simple crown. He had to do a root canal. Fortunately, I was plenty numb and didn't feel anything. And he sent me home with pain meds in case it gets unbearable. So far it's just a little ache, unless I try to chew on the right side of my mouth.

So for those of you keeping score, that's three root canals in three years.

Non-sticky teeth

All I can figure is that cement doesn't stick to my kids' teeth. My oldest has lost two brackets from his braces. My nine year old just had the left bracket for his head gear come off last night - he's previously had the right one come off. Honestly, I'm glad the orthodontist is only three miles from my house or the gas to run back and forth might cost as much as the braces themselves!!

Ugh

This morning I am supposed to go talk to the orthodontist about how much it's going to cost me to fix my older two sons' teeth. I have a feeling we won't be talking about trips to Disney or Busch Gardens again any time soon.

Not looking forward to this.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Teeth

Today's Fake Quote:

"Sometimes even teeth need a change of scenery." - P. Farb

I went to the dentist yesterday to get my permanent crown for the lovely root canal I had two weeks ago. When he went to put the new crown in, it fit perfectly. There was just one little problem: my tooth had moved.

Yes, apparently the neighborhood wasn't to my tooth's liking and it had to scoot away from its neighbor by a few millimeters. It moved just far enough that there would have been an annoying, food-catching gap in between the two. So my crown goes back to the lab to have material added to front of it so it can cozy up with the neighbor again.

I asked if this is common and the dentist told me about 3 in 100 people have this happen. I guess I just have restless teeth. Now what happens if it gets that yen to wander again before the new crown comes in? I don't know. I guess I'll have to take away its passport.

No pain... yet

Just got home from my two-hour root canal. I am SO much more impressed with this dentist than the last one. I didn't feel a thing past the initial injections. Of course, the whole left side of my head was pretty much numb, so that helped. I have a temp crown and a prescription for Vicodin so I should be good to go until the permanent one goes in two weeks from Wednesday.

Not at all happy

Not only is that back tooth broken and needs a root canal, the dentist showed me three or four other teeth that are cracked (they had this cool camera that took pictures of my teeth and then showed them to me on a computer screen. Kind of gross, actually. No one should look at their teeth that closely). Not only that, but I have at least two fillings that need to be replaced. Which only proves we had a lousy dentist and were right to switch to this new one.

So Monday morning I go for the root canal, and we'll see from there. Oh, and did I mention that all of this is coming out of our pocket? By the time my dental work, Hubby's work and the kids' work gets done, we will have spent almost three times what we spent on our Disney trip. And that's before I take the older two boys for the consult with the orthodontist.

My mom told me once that her father had all his teeth pulled and got false teeth. At the time, I thought that was a little strange. Now, I kind of get it.

Anything but that

I have a dentist appointment today. It's the first one I've had since I had my crown put in last year. I never used to be afraid of the dentist, but I've been having the same type of pain in a different tooth, and I'm terrified of another root canal. Specifically, I'm scared of the complications. That was the worst pain I have ever had in my entire life. And the really annoying part was that I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't neglect my teeth, or skip checkups or anything. I just had a cracked filling. And that's what this other tooth feels like.

If it is a cracked filling, and they do discover that the nerve is exposed like last time, I think I'd rather they just pull it. Either that, or give me a prescription for pain meds up front. I will not go through another weekend of agony.

Does a crown make me a queen?

I have to go to the dentist this morning. Again. To have him work on that root canal tooth. Again. I cracked it and now I need a crown.

Here's what's cool, though: at soccer practice last night, this other mom I've been chatting with during every practice offered to watch the boys for me while I go! They've been begging to go to her house anyway, so I was thrilled to accept her offer. I might play SPF later, when I'm back and somewhat recovered, but for now I'm going to get ready to go.

Thursday

Okay, first of all, I told you so. I told you Locke was getting himself into trouble by trusting Ben. These stupid TV people never listen to me.

Someone visited my blog from the Unilever company the other day, by searching Technorati for mention of a certain weight-loss drink I've been using (which they manufacture). I wonder what they were looking for? A spokesperson perhaps? Someone upon whom to lavish many wonderful gift items? Free samples? Come back! What do want from me? Come back!!

You know, you probably can't tell from my blog posts (snicker, snort), but I've been feeling really scatterbrained recently.

I have to take the boys to the dentist this morning, which means a one-hour-each-way drive and lunch out somewhere. I'm thinking McDonald's. They have diet food, right? Salads. Where they get off charging $4 plus for one, I don't know. Maybe I'll get two side salads. Grr, why does the dentist have to be so far away? Hey, if you're reading this and you know a pediatric dentist who wants to move, give him my email. He/she needs to come here.

Okay, gotta go get ready now.

Good morning, um afternoon!

I am just now having my morning coffee. It's 2 p.m.

As you may remember, I had an unexpected root canal about a month ago. For whatever reason, it decided to start hurting yesterday. I tried various home remedies for toothaches. Some worked. Some didn't. But the pain kept getting worse. By bedtime, even extra strength pain relievers were doing nothing. I tried to sleep but I couldn't.

I spent most of the night, until around 4 a.m., awake and in agony. I was finally able to get a couple hours of sleep sitting on the living room sofa. Finally, at 9:20, the dentist was able to see me. He said I should be 100% better now, but he left the tooth open to allow any trapped gases to escape before he finishes the job on Wednesday.

So I got home around 10:30 and went to bed. I just got up at 1:30. The boys have been good, considering I wasn't around to get them snacks every three minutes. And hopefully I will be able to sleep the next two nights before getting this thing finished.

SPF - Luggage

Kristine's assignment this week is our luggage. So here it is.
This is the luggage we use most often, though we've got a bunch of other suitcases sitting around.

So, who has ever gone to the dentist to get a filling replaced and ended up with a root canal? I did that yesterday. The dentist didn't know the old filling was touching the nerve until he cleaned it out. To his credit, I didn't feel a thing, and he didn't tell me he was doing a root canal until he finished, so I wasn't sitting there panicking. Afterward, he said he didn't know how I could have lived with it that long.

"You must have a very high pain threshold," he said.

"I've had four kids," I replied. Three of them without any pain medication. What do you think?

So, did you play?

A good dentist is harder to be found than silver, yea, than much silver filling

I just got back from the dentist. I'm not someone who is afraid of the dentist or anything like that. But I have learned that there are good ones, and there are not-so-good ones. We just switched from one dentist we were less than happy with, to one who had been recommended by someone Hubby works with. I had been happy with him up until my last appointment.

See, we were sitting around eating dinner one night and I bit down on something and a horrible stabbing pain shot through my mouth. So I told the dentist a week or so later during my normal checkup. He did an x-ray, said he didn't see anything, and that was it. Today, they had a new dentist in the office, a younger guy who we found out was from New York City. I tell him the problem, which has still been bothering me, and instantly he says, "Sounds like a fracture."

So now I need to go back for a filling. Which I would have been more than happy to do six months ago if only the dentist would have actually looked at my teeth! It seems fractures don't show up in x-rays. This new dentist figured out what it was by listening to what I said. What a concept!