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Went to the dentist today to have more work done on this tooth of mine that needs a crown. The day was almost surrealistically good; I beat the traffic coming into Cambridge and Brookline, arrived 20 minutes early, found a parking meter half-a-block from the dentist with an hour still on it, backed in perfectly on the first try.
The dentist visit was nearly as good. My dentist kicks ass! He kept me properly numbed for the entire procedure (normally I can have routine fillings done by him without numbing at all, but this was much more invasive). I had a bit of breakthrough pain, he numbed me some more. What I really like about this guy is the rapport I've developed; he'll tell me where he is in the procedure and what he's doing and answer any questions at whatever technical level is appropriate (I tend to go for very techie :) ). So if I'm feeling a bit of pain, we can go over where we are in the procedure. If we're nearly done, I'll ride it out because I know how long (short) it will last. Such an amazing contrast from the insensitive bastard I was dragged to as a child...
As I was driving home I got to thinking about just how many times I've had to visit dentists for this one tooth:
1) Summer, 2002 I break a point off of this molar (upper right, #3 for those in the know). Eating ice cream of all things (okay, chocolate chip and I busted it on a frozen chip. stilll...). I make an emergency appointment and get a temporary patch. Dentist tells me I need a gum procedure prior to an actual repair (tooth busted at the gumline, need to carve away some gum and bone to make a proper substructure for a crown). I ignore his advice, and his patch holds for two years.
2) Summer, 2004. This time I'm eating Fritos. You know something's wrong when you crunch down on a hard object that you know isn't part of what you're eating. This time the patch and more of the tooth as well as most of the amalgam has crumbled away. Another emergency appt for a consultation. This time he does not patch it up. I think he did this on purpose to "incent" me to visit the periodontist already
3) First periodontist appt. He sizes up the situation and sets a surgery date... two months hence.
4) Two months is Two Long to have a busted tooth in my mouth, so I go back to my regular dentist for a temporary build-up until the procedure can be done.
5) Scheduled surgery date: they take my blood pressure. It's WAAAAY too high for them to feel comfortable doing the surgery (since novacaine raises BP). They nix the procedure and I go off to my regular doc for BP treatment (good thing; this was way higher than I'd ever had it). My regular docs are seriously surprised that a dentist would check BP.
6) rescheduled surgery after BP treatment, everything goes really well
7) oops, the temporary packing around the surgery site comes out, back to the surgeon in a hurry to have it re-packed.
8) the scheduled date to have the packing removed. Everything's fine.
9) First periodontist followup, looks good
10) Second periodontist followup after healing time, looks great.
11) Today's appointment to have the tooth ground down, crown castings taken, and a temporary crown fitted.
Hopefully there'll be just one more (12) appointment to have the final crown applied. Still, this tooth had better be worth a dozen dentist visits!
It all has to do with design life, folks. Human teeth are designed to last until age 30-35 (i.e. just long enough to bear and raise some young). At 43 I'm well past the design life of human teeth. I hear of promising stem cell research in the UK for growing brand-new teeth in adult (mouse) jaws, but I don't know if it'll come along in time to help me...
Anyhow, chew careful out there! Oh, and if anyone needs recommendations for a good dentist and specialists in the Boston area, I've got 'em :)
The dentist visit was nearly as good. My dentist kicks ass! He kept me properly numbed for the entire procedure (normally I can have routine fillings done by him without numbing at all, but this was much more invasive). I had a bit of breakthrough pain, he numbed me some more. What I really like about this guy is the rapport I've developed; he'll tell me where he is in the procedure and what he's doing and answer any questions at whatever technical level is appropriate (I tend to go for very techie :) ). So if I'm feeling a bit of pain, we can go over where we are in the procedure. If we're nearly done, I'll ride it out because I know how long (short) it will last. Such an amazing contrast from the insensitive bastard I was dragged to as a child...
As I was driving home I got to thinking about just how many times I've had to visit dentists for this one tooth:
1) Summer, 2002 I break a point off of this molar (upper right, #3 for those in the know). Eating ice cream of all things (okay, chocolate chip and I busted it on a frozen chip. stilll...). I make an emergency appointment and get a temporary patch. Dentist tells me I need a gum procedure prior to an actual repair (tooth busted at the gumline, need to carve away some gum and bone to make a proper substructure for a crown). I ignore his advice, and his patch holds for two years.
2) Summer, 2004. This time I'm eating Fritos. You know something's wrong when you crunch down on a hard object that you know isn't part of what you're eating. This time the patch and more of the tooth as well as most of the amalgam has crumbled away. Another emergency appt for a consultation. This time he does not patch it up. I think he did this on purpose to "incent" me to visit the periodontist already
3) First periodontist appt. He sizes up the situation and sets a surgery date... two months hence.
4) Two months is Two Long to have a busted tooth in my mouth, so I go back to my regular dentist for a temporary build-up until the procedure can be done.
5) Scheduled surgery date: they take my blood pressure. It's WAAAAY too high for them to feel comfortable doing the surgery (since novacaine raises BP). They nix the procedure and I go off to my regular doc for BP treatment (good thing; this was way higher than I'd ever had it). My regular docs are seriously surprised that a dentist would check BP.
6) rescheduled surgery after BP treatment, everything goes really well
7) oops, the temporary packing around the surgery site comes out, back to the surgeon in a hurry to have it re-packed.
8) the scheduled date to have the packing removed. Everything's fine.
9) First periodontist followup, looks good
10) Second periodontist followup after healing time, looks great.
11) Today's appointment to have the tooth ground down, crown castings taken, and a temporary crown fitted.
Hopefully there'll be just one more (12) appointment to have the final crown applied. Still, this tooth had better be worth a dozen dentist visits!
It all has to do with design life, folks. Human teeth are designed to last until age 30-35 (i.e. just long enough to bear and raise some young). At 43 I'm well past the design life of human teeth. I hear of promising stem cell research in the UK for growing brand-new teeth in adult (mouse) jaws, but I don't know if it'll come along in time to help me...
Anyhow, chew careful out there! Oh, and if anyone needs recommendations for a good dentist and specialists in the Boston area, I've got 'em :)
