(no subject)

[fewdiodave]

About two weeks ago, feeling a bad cold coming on, I decided to venture out and eat some comfort food. So I found myself at Brent's Deli in Northridge eating matzo ball soup and bread - about the softest food you can possibly eat - when one of my teeth made this sickening CRUNCH noise. I'd not noticed any problems with it up until this point, but whatever happened, happened, and it was suddenly very loose and very painful.

So I made an emergency appointment with a dentist the next day, who took one look at it and the accompanying x-rays and sent me right away to a periodontist, who decided the tooth was coming out; no saving it. I had something called Internal Resorption. Apparently, it's fairly rare, and it's sometimes caused by trauma to the tooth, but often times, they have no idea what causes it. Since I've not had any trauma to my tooth (unless one of you is breaking into my house and punching me in the face in my sleep), I'm assuming I fall into the second camp. Anyway, Internal Resorption is where the tooth rots from the inside out. And there's really no obvious symptom, unless you're seeing a dentist regularly, which, clearly, I have not been. And by the time this happened, it was too late. I think basically, so much of the tooth had eaten away at itself on the inside, that it just collapsed.

So, at the moment, I'm minus one tooth. When I smile, I look like meth addict. Or a hockey player. Yeah, let's go with that one.

I'll be getting a replacement, but it's a long process; it'll be several weeks before it's in. I'm thinking of getting a fake gold tooth, encrusted with a diamond.

Comments

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

yikes.

If you're feeling sheepish about not seeing a dentist regularly (maybe you're not, in which case skip this...) don't--lots of people put it off. I did for 20 years and only got back into the habit when I had a painful issue. I expected the staff at the office to be disgusted with my lack of responsibility but they see folks like me all the time. It doesn't help that most people have crappy dental coverage (if they have any at all) and I'm sure it's especially bad with the economic downturn.

Anyway, I went through this whole replacement thing, for a molar I had extracted 10 years ago. Finally got around to it (no one notices a molar, so I was in no hurry). The very last step-- getting my replacement tooth and screwing it onto the abutment--happens tomorrow!

[anamorphic.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't help that most people have crappy dental coverage (if they have any at all)"

Yeah, that was my issue - I have medical insurance but nada on the dental. I've never really understood why those are two separate things - how are teeth NOT part of your medical health? Oh well.

Congrats on your abutment! I have my next appointment on April 3rd, but I guess that's just when they put the foundation in or something? I don't think I get the actual replacement until several weeks after that. Hope yours goes well and isn't painful!

[crankyasanoldma.livejournal.com]

Exactly. More and more they are finding that your overall health IS linked to your teeth, so it gets dumber and dumber that the two are kept separate.

[javamaven1.livejournal.com]

You know, when you were here last week, I could overhear the tooth story, but I was in the kitchen so I didn't see the gap. Later in the evening, you were smiling and I saw the gap and my brain didn't link to the story right away--seriously, I was half a second away from saying, "OH SHIT WHAT HAPPENED?" Then I would have slunk back to the kitchen in shame.

Are you going to have your initial put on the gold tooth?

[anamorphic.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's too funny. It is kind of alarming, isn't it? I've been trying not to smile too broadly until I get the replacement, but it's hard to do sometimes.

I hadn't thought about initials... that's not a bad idea! Or maybe I'll just get random letters to confuse people.