Beginning blogging (again): Dental adventures

Look how happy this tooth is; the last time my teeth felt like this was when I still believed they all had happy smiles and I was given toys by my dentist (because he is my godfather).

I was so much better at this in college.  Anyways, today is as good as any to get back into the habit of trying to write daily.  And it is a great time because I can capture the experience that was this morning's dental adventures.  I have to explain a little bit of back-story here; two years ago, I was in dire financial straits and yet no matter how many times I explained this to my aching teeth, they were obnoxiously sore from years of not having seen a dentist that I gave in and called Aspen Dental.  They are super convenient in their free consult exam and took me in pretty quickly.  However as a full time part-timer at two jobs, the cost of root canaling two teeth (bicuspid and rear molar) plus some other cavity business was going to cost me upwards of 5 G's.  My mother helped with some and I slung some onto my credit card debt and was able to take care of the "cheaper" bicuspid.

My money tree died like all the other plants I have ever had.

Almost two years later I debated and judged how much aching I could take on the right side of my mouth.  I had let the tooth break sometime last summer and was trying to pay off the first R.C. in order to be mostly debt free when I took on R.C. #2.  Well finally two weeks ago I called and said I had endured enough hurt and was ready to get this S.O.B. taken care of.  And being Aspen (I have nothing but good things to say about them, despite reading some not very nice reviews on their business practices, they have always treated me like a human being who has strong financial concerns and were not selling me on something I didn't need at all), they arranged for me to come in today because I already had a cleaning in the books.

I have learned that not all dentist relish making their patients feel like good-for-nothing, teeth hating, 4-year olds.

I had the same chipper hygienist as all my other cleanings and things looked pretty good with the rest of my mouth.  As the non-medical member of my family, I am generally clueless as per the jargon, but I do know and am not too proud to ask how I can be taking better care of my teeth.  Since they are such a pain in the ass anyways (literal pain and financial), I figure I should be doing the best I can to only need to see the dentist on my six-month cleanings (where they will tell me what a good job I do taking care of my pearly whites-gold stars for me).  However, today I learned there are some things a person really has no control over no matter how religious and dedicated they are to their brush, floss, and rinse routine.  As a grown-up child with no dental coverage, I assumed being faithful to at home dental hygiene would keep me set until I was covered by some provider so I wasn't shelling out a few hundred dollars every six months to be yelled at by my former dentist (Aspen dental does no scolding and talks to me like I am the 27 year old I really am).

Healthy gums go all the way up between each tooth.

 Well, it turns out that not getting plaque/tartar removed twice a year is the main reason periodontal disease (aka-gingivitis) occurs, and the disease is painless so I don't notice a problem until the infection affects my teeth. And once major sad gum pockets form, there is no reversal, just maintenance.

Mild periodontitis-see the small sad space in between the teeth.  Those are not supposed to be there.  They form from plaque/tartar buildup.  These black and white pics are the least gross of the images that I found.  Teeth are so ugly.

 I only have one really sad gum pocket and it is not so sad that it needs dental antibiotic intervention, but there is no home remedy or step I can add to my dental routine that will reverse the damage.  The second thing I learned I have no control over when it comes to my mouth are the lengths of my pulp horns.  WT?!...Well, the root canal doctor explained that pulps generally form a box shape inside each tooth, but sometimes (actually he said 60% of teeth get these) the pulps extend upwards in the tooth to look like long horns.

Normal tooth pulp inside-the pulp shape is box-like. 

Pulp is extended a bit towards the cusp (top) and since the nerve is there it will be more sensitive being closer to the top of the tooth.

There is no cause for this formation, he explained, and there is nothing to do about it but know that the tooth may be extra sensitive because of the nerve's close proximity to the top of the tooth. 

1.)  Sad tooth with cavity invading root and nerve (ouchies) 2.) Drill to the canals (some teeth have just one-mine had three) 3.) The "plumbing" of the canal (most tedious part) 4.) Sealing and filling

So there is nothing I can do about my pulps, onwards with the flippin' root canal.  The graphic below (again the least disgusting one I can find) is a good diagram for the steps of an R.C. for a person who has never had one.  It does not include what I believe the worst part is, the novacaine at the beginning.  First the doctor used a gel number to ease the pain I would feel on the injections (plural because the molar I was having R.C.ed has two nerves going into it-perfect).  This gel-ly stuff was supposedly strawberry flavored (if strawberries were grown in hell and dipped into acid).  Then he did the injections (yes, needles, plural), and I got to sit for a bit and flip through tv channels (which is why I don't need cable tv ever-I'm a notorious channel flipper).  Finally we were able to get down to business; actually, I had no business to really do but lay back and get used to my lips drying out, my tongue feeling half asleep, and my jaw muscles getting tired.  My dentist is great; he fills me in every step of the way and makes sure I am feeling pain free and is sassy about the boring-ness of a routine R.C.  Boring was fine.  I was done in about an hour (ish) and with the filling dried and in place, the hole I have lived with for about a year was gone (woo and hoo).

The novacaine lasted through starbucks coffee and lobster bisque at the 'Slobster and was most of the way gone by the time we were driving through Meadville.  I am a two on the soreness scale of one to ten and will take the night off band to prevent any vibrational pain.  In two weeks I will return to Aspen for my crown prep.  So dental adventures, to be continued!...