The Voice Of Reason

I'm having a molar extracted this afternoon. Not happy. This tooth has historically caused me trouble for years. It was one of the first teeth that needed a root canal which was done a second time after that. Then it needed gum surgery as the root canal still didn't quite work. I won't gross you out with the details. That surgery seemed to work and then earlier this year i started getting swelling and tenderness along the gum. The dental surgeon said that though the surgery seemed to have worked, it's obviously failed again and there's a low grade infection there. He could do more surgery but chances were that it would only go the same way and rather than continue to throw money at it, he'd recommend getting it out. Then decided i should probably throw even more money at it and have a dental implant to replace the tooth. Sheesh. Well i haven't decided for sure about that because it's very expensive but we'll see how it goes. I have a molar gone on the other side as well and both are not the back tooth but the next one so there's gaps. That makes it a nuisance for chewing on the gapped side. Now i'll have two gaps so i may have an implant for convenience of chewing. As i said, we'll see how it goes. It has to heal awhile first before i have to decide.

I'm a bit worked up about the extraction. I know it'll be fine and no worse than the gum surgery was and that didn't make me all that anxious. I've had similar before as well so why i'm more nervous this time, I don't know. also, the dentist i now have isn't doing it himself but is sending me to a dental surgeon in Dartmouth in an inconvenient place. Mom is going to take me but it's still a nuisance getting there. Otherwise i'd only have to go up 3 floors in this building and have it done there like last time. (different dentist than the one i have now). Maybe that's part of why i'm all wound up. Anyway i know it will be fine, i just have to keep telling myself that. I have my iPod with me and i'm hoping the dentist won't mind if i use that as it gives me something to concentrate on while he's working.

On a javascript course. going well. spent most of my lunch break in the dentist's office. grrrr.... i have a molar that's starting to give me a bit of grief again. Last time this happened, he redid the root canal. That was about a year and a half ago or thereabouts. Seems to be acting up again and i wanted to have it checked in case i need a referral to an endodontist. It's not a toothache though, but it hurts to bite on, not constantly but enough that i know there's a problem. Xray and consult later, and sure enough, they think i probably should get it checked by the specialist. I have had this happen once before many moons ago. They had to do some dental surgery through the gum to sort out the problem at the root of the tooth and it's never bothered me since. I suspect the same thing will happen this time. The dentist did give me some antibiotics to hold me over Christmas in case it got worse as it is caused by a little infection around the root of the tooth. She said she normally wouldn't prescribe it though, but is only doing so because it's over the holidays. I'm of two minds whether to get it filled but i suppose i will. As i said, it's not a toothache. I don't even have the problem 100% of the time, but there *is* a problem and it has to be sorted. Too close to Christmas to likely get a referral and they would only be checking it first anyway. I think i might have to wait until the new year so that my Blue Cross will kick in again to cover the procedure. I don't know if it's classed in the same way that a filling or root canal is, see. A root canal or a regular filling is covered but the crown is only at 80% up to a maximum of $1000. I had to pay over that a few hundred this year because he did two teeth and two crowns at once, gutting the old fillings and redoing them. This procedure won't mean a new crown though so the work itself might just be covered but i'll wait until January anyway, just in case.

Confused?

Anyway, no biggie, it's not a tooth crisis, not like an abscess or constant toothache is. It's more tender in the morning mainly.

It's always something /roseanne roseannadanna