My poor tooth

If you read this blog back in March or so, you might remember I had some issues with my teeth. I worked up the nerve to get into a dentist (I am SERIOUSLY afraid of dentists due to a bad childhood dentist) and had a couple of fillings done. One was temporary and I was told I would either need a root canal or an extraction and told the prices. There were no pros or cons given, just prices, and I have put off making a decision with all of the other medical junk going on.

Monday, while Silas was out of town, I bit down while eating and the tooth with the temp filling actually broke. In one corner, there was no more tooth. I cold actually see nothing but the filling there. I wasn't having any pain, but I freaked out nevertheless, because I knew this would mean another visit to the dentist. I was trying to wait until after the first of the year when I would not only hopefully have the money to get it fixed, but also know exactly what is wrong with me medically. I call my dentist office and the woman that I spoke to was so incredibly rude about the situation. Basically, once again, I was given my options of root canal or extraction, and once again was given my prices for each. They wanted $800 for JUST the extraction, and then according to her I would need to have the tooth replaced with something. This option would run me anywhere from $1600-$2400 depending on whether I got a partial or an implant. The root canal and the build-up and crown would total about $1600-$1800. Oh, and no payment plans for any of these options...the most they would do is split the cost into two parts. And you know we have that kind of cash growing on the tree in my backyard like they do, right? Ugh. I was in tears because I was forced to make a decision before any pain would start and I had no clue what to do since neither option was truly financially feasible for us at this time.

So, when I talked to my best friend, April, that same day, she reminded me that she got her wisdom teeth taken out by the School of Dentistry at the University of Florida. I was willing to drive if necessary, so I spent the next day researching my options. Turns out they have a local dental school here in town that I never even knew about. I called to find out how I could get in and was told I would for an emergency visit, which this would be considered, I would need to be in line by 7:30 in the morning and hope and pray I was one of the first ten people or so to ensure I would be seen.

I made it to the dentist yesterday morning by 6:30 and was the third person there. The first guy, Dr. W., took my pressure and it was 160/103. Ha! I wasn't scared or anything. Yeah right!

They sent in a guy with an extremely thick indian accent to talk about the x-ray and go through the two options I already knew about. I told him that I knew my options and nobody has wanted to give me pros or cons to each, so I didn't really know which would be better. So, he uses dental talk to explain to me and I still couldn't understand half of what he was saying. Something about knobs and removing something, but that was about it. He finally leaves telling me that the guy will explain it again when he comes in to work on me. Silas was actually in the room with me and couldn't understand anything being said either.

So, Dr. W. comes in and goes through the options explaining thoroughly and answering all of my questions. I asked about the whole replacement bit since my other dentist said I would need it done. He said the second molars are basically bonus teeth and if it were a first molar he'd probably say yeah, but it isn't necessary with the 2nd molars and did not have to be taken care of right now. So, I guess that means that my lovely dentist truly was just after money, which is pretty stinky.

Once I made my decision to have it extracted and Silas left, I asked Dr. W. how bad it was goign to be. HE told me if I could tolerate the sights and sounds then it wouldn't be bad at all. Now, after getting me lying back and he and the other guy are basically trapping me I hear him tell me not to worry if I hear a lot of cracking noises because it is perfectly normal. OH MY GOODNESS! NOW they tell me! ACK! They had a lot of trouble getting it out because my wisdom tooth was actually pushing on the molar, which is something he warned might happen. They were having to call for tools they didn't have at their station. LOL I had warned them that the other dentist had trouble numbing me for the fillings, so he said just let them know that I need more anesthetic, which they did have to do in the middle. The tooth pretty much sectioned itself in the middle of them loosening it because of how weak it was. The wisdom tooth is actually visible now, and he said there is a slight chance that it might just grow in and occupy the space. The only major concern this causes is that I may eventually have to lose the top 2nd molar on that side because it might shift a little bit, but no biggie according to him.

So, other than the fact that he dated my pain prescription for today instead of yesterday (which thankfully the pharmacy called and got changed), I would recommend the dental schools to anyone. They were incredibly nice and straightforward in answering my questions. They were as gentle as they could possibly be in this situation.

My mouth was absolutely killing me last night. I am allergic to NSAIDS (Ibuprofen and the such) so they gave me a prescription for Vicodin. I took one pill and it zonked me out for three hours. When I woke up it was past time for another pill, so I went ahead and took it at dinnertime. We had spaghetti and my child-sized plate full took me a good hour to eat. LOL I guess it must have been too slow to eat with the med since I was extremely nauseous the rest of the night. I had to stay in bed in order to get it to be bearable, and my head was hurting worse than my usual migraines. I woke up at 3am and surprisingly my mouth felt fine. I still had a killer headache and decided against taking another Vicodin and instead took my Excedrim Migraine. Awesome stuff! I feel almost back to normal this morning.

So, that's it for now. I have to update on Jacob's ENT appointment sometime soon. For now though, I am off to go to garage sales with my mother, aunt and a couple of cousins. Should be fun!