I’ve been asked so many times how I am doing with my tooth, from email, this site and twitter, I’d like to give anyone that cares an answer, and thank you very much for caring…. For the last three & 1/2 weeks I have been to the dentist about 6 times. I have been taking pain meds that for the most part aren’t strong enough and I have been living on whipped cream & mashed potatoes. My sleep, which is always a mess, is worse than usual, because of the pain, and I’m afraid the cap and or a piece of my tooth is going to fall off in my sleep and I’ll swallow it. (ha ha, I can hear you, but that’s NOT something I wanna swallow) I can talk, but it hurts my jaw to do it too much, so I have been avoiding it when possible. Did you ever hear the saying, if it can go wrong it will? Well I not only heard it, i so now believe it!
The torture begins in the third week of February-Sore Tooth, feels like something is stuck in it, so doing lots of flossing.
My tooth breaks and hurts, cold or hot food, forget it. Have to live thru the weekend.
Mon- Dentist says I need a root canal, and crown.
My dentist doesn’t do the surgery, I have to come in a week from Tuesday, the day the specialist is in. They give me pain meds and antibiotics. My mouth, throat, cheek are killing me.
a week later- I go in, get a root canal, which is usually three "canals" drilled out and filled in, I am lucky enough to have four. So they drill four holes down into my bone. i am there for over two hours and have three novicane shots, but no gas, their machine is down.
I am supposed to come back in three weeks for the work to reconstruct my tooth and cap it.
I am in so much pain that the meds they gave me aren’t enough and they give me a new medication that blocks the feeling from the nerves to my brain. ( It’s what they give people with herpes! gaba-something)
One day later, my tooth ( the one that is now "canaled") partially breaks off.
I go back in and the tooth is looked at, determined to be okay as far as the root canal goes, but I need to get the cap done immediately instead of 3 weeks later.
Come in and get my tooth drilled , novacaine needles, my gums cut back and they make the temp cap. While they are doing it, they drop plaster partially down my throat and it gags me and I throw up. They put the cap on and i go home.
The next night, Friday, the temp crown falls off. I call the dentist answering service and they will not be open again until Monday.
The dentist calls me back on saturday and tells me to go get fixadent and put the cap back on myself. If I leave it off he says, the gums might move back and they will have to cut them again.
I put the cap back on a couple times because every time I eat anything it falls off.
Monday I go in and get the cap glued on again with no novocaine.
So here I am today, it’s tuesday. My jaw is sore and my neck and back are killing me from tossing and turning so much while I am trying to sleep.
My last appointment to get the permanent cap on is April 1st. I’m hoping that nothing else goes wrong in between now and then. And that I can get the cap and be done with the dentist for at least the rest of the year.
Oh, and I can’t forget the wonderful new charge on my credit card for $2300. sigh :{