Last summer, I got a dental infection. It needed treatment with not one, but two antibiotics. That led to a gut infection, which pretty much left me as ill as I can recall being in years. But here's "The Rest of the Story."
My parents were awesome people, but they grew up poor. I remember the day my mom came home after having ALL of her teeth extracted. I don't think I was in school yet, and she was only 20 when I was born. Regular dental visits were not part of my life, growing up. Toothbrushes were also not a regular part of my life in early childhood: It took some dental hygiene classes in school and some sleepovers at friends' houses to notice that we were missing something. By the time I was a teen, brushing was a regular habit, but by then the damage had been done.
When I was 21, I got a job with REALLY good dental insurance. It took a good dentist about a year of almost weekly visits to fix what could be fixed and pull what could not. When all was said and done, I was down 2 wisdom teeth and 4 other adult teeth, and had fillings in nearly every other remaining tooth. I lost another tooth during medical residency - I just couldn't afford a root canal. So when I finally got another 'real job' I started seeing a dentist again.
To cover a gap due to these missing teeth, my dentist recommended a permanent bridge, crowning 3 teeth and adding 2 'fake' teeth. Twenty or so year later the enamal cracked, and I had to replace it. Now, these suckers are expensive: A 5-tooth bridge is $2500-$3500, and dental insurance at the time covered very little of it, but hey, I like to eat, and chewing with your gums isn't comfy, so I did what I had to do. When the replacement bridge was installed, I needed a root canal in one of the teeth, so the timing was good even if the cost was ungodly.
Fast forward to last summer. The infection I had was in the tooth, under the bridge, with the root canal. So earlier this year I went to an oral surgeon and had some procedure done that made the tooth stop getting infections. I went for routine follow up at the end of July, and he said it was healing well, despite the fact that I told him that it felt like the bridge was, "Chewing funny."
Two days before we left for the beach, I had a routine cleaning. I told the hygienist the same thing. I was due for x-rays. My regular dentist was on vacation, so another guy looked it all over, said everything looked great, see you in 6 months.
Later that same day, I was eating, and the bridge came out. At least, that's what I thought at first. But what actually happened was that it BROKE between the two 'fake' teeth, bringing the recently repaired tooth right out with it, root canal included. So, there I am with essentially three teeth in my hand and....Geeze. In retrospect, the crack is completely visible on the x-rays, not that it mattered. It would have saved me only one emergency dental visit the next day.
So.
Today, after a lot of back-and-forth between my regular dentist and the oral surgeon, the bridge has been turned into 2 crowns, and sad remains of the other tooth pulled. An implant was placed, and I'll tell you that I've never had so many stitches in my life as I have in my mouth right now.
The total anticipated cost on this baby is about $3500, but thanks be to God this guy takes our insurance, so I'm expecting to pay less than a third of that. And THEN I get to see about getting a removable bridge, because no way in HELL am I putting in a third 'permanent' bridge at those prices.
And tonight, I have to say, I am incredibly grateful for hydrocodone, and for medications that cut nausea enough to make it possible to take it.
Interestingly enough, dental implants frequently require bone grafts, and I needed grafting. So I now have donor bone in my jaw (not to be disrespectful, but jamming splinters of someone else's bone up under your gums is uncomfortable while it is happening, even with Novocaine, and QUITE painful when the Novocaine wears off). I asked the oral surgeon about the donor, thinking to write to the family and say thank you, but he said, "It came from the University of Miami, so it must have been a smart guy." By this point I was a bit dazed by all the yanking and jamming and whatnot, but I'm planning on slapping him upside the head when I go back for my recheck to remind him that perhaps some respect is due to those who donate, right?
DeeDee
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