The Saga of a Tooth Lost-Chapter 4

Penicillin…for 2 1/2 weeks. That’s what it took to keep the pain at bay and the infection in my tooth down. But even with all that Penicillin I still had swelling and drainage. Ick! I made an appointment for my poor cracked and unsalvageable tooth to be removed. Then I pondered the fact that I’m being removed from the earth one piece at a time…last year a hysterectomy and this year the tooth. I can’t help but wonder what I’ll be losing next year (secretly hoping it’s 10 lbs!).

In the week before my appointment I spoke with a couple people who had also lost teeth and asked about the options and what they’d chose to have done (or not done) and hoped they’d ease my fear of having my tooth removed. I was assured it was an easy procedure and that my options looked pretty good.

Liars!

I got all settled into the chair, met the oral surgeon and discussed my procedure. After an hour of sitting there with my mouth numb he came back in with his assistant and they began the tag-team wrestling match with my mouth. The assistant pulled on my jaw and tapped my shoulder while the oral surgeon pulled on the tooth in the opposite direction.

CRACK!…”Oh…it doesn’t usually break like that. Ok Mrs. Lang, now you will hear some noise and feel some vibration.” *drilling, drilling, drilling* “Well, we got most of it. sit tight while we get that other root.” *back to the tag-team wrestling* “Ah! There it is! See.”

The last thing I wanted to see was the final piece of my tooth that they had to wrestle from my mouth!

I was then assured that my bone looked good (I’m pretty sure my eyes rolled back in my head at the thought of them looking at my bone! They could SEE my bone?!) and that I was going to need an appointment in a week so he could check on things and that I would need to let it heal for the next 4 months. After that my options looked good. Wait! No they don’t! Let’s see, there are 3 options;
1.Do nothing and have a missing tooth that feels like a hole, the size of Lake Tahoe, in my mouth
2.Get a bridge and feel like my grandmother.
3.A dental implant…drilling into my jaw bone (but hey, we know it’s a good one!), having a screw installed and a crown put in place. This, apparently lasts the rest of your life (wondering if when I pass away if it would be the only remaining “tooth” in my mouth) and costs a mere 4K, non of which is covered by insurance because it’s considered “cosmetic”.

These do not sound like happy options. But, I have 4 months to think on them. Until then, I have to get used to the hole in my mouth and weather the relentless teasing of my daughters who consider me “old”.

Maybe they’re right.

The fifth and final chapter…sometime in the future.

Have a good day and by all means give your teeth a little extra love and attention today!