well, this is a really long story, so i’ll get to it. i am one of those rare individuals (or maybe not) whose parents didn’t take them to the dentist. the first time i went i was 16 years old and needless to say the damage was already done. most specificially to all 8 of the back molars. times being what they were, the teeth were filled and went on my merry way about adulthood.
in my late twenties, we found a fantastic dentist in friendswood who replaced all those fillings with white fillings. sound good, worked well, time moves on…
fast forward 25 years to 2001 when we moved to spring. found a nice dentist here (yah, here it comes) who was somewhat less than competent, and pretty much said, it’s time to crown those molars if you would like to keep them until you are at least 60. so replace them i did. now, he probably wasn’t the worst dentist in the world, but a far cry from being even a competent dentist. the tooth at the root of all this evil….was crowned along with 7 other, and it cost me a fortune by the way, only the caveat being…this one he couldn’t get the permanent to fit properly, and ended up driling a hole in it so the bite worked.
now we are getting to it…so over the past 5 years, lets count…yep every single one of those teeth have failed. most specifically the evil one. right before val’s wedding mind you,sometime in april i think. so i trot off to my nifty new dentist with his shiney new office - and they say - oh - that has to be replaced,and of course,i’mlike no shit sherlock…but not today. glue that puppy back on and i’ll come in after the wedding.
actually - the temp glue failed 3 times before the wedding, and the last time i said - put it on with superglue - i’m not getting this fixed before the wedding, cause i didn’t want to have what i knew would be trouble and we were going on vaca for 2 weeks after. now you might think this sounds reasonable, except…the upper right molar came off like 8 days before the wedding. the dentist said…i can’t fix that, it’s really bad, i’m sending you to an endodondist. so…off i trot. the guy was great - he had to do a root canal, through a gold inlay mind you - i walked out with no pain, no swelling, but a really big hole in the tooth that had temporary filling in it. well, you know me, i did not react well to the temp material - so i was pretty miserable for a few days, but then it sort of just went away…along with a lot of the temp material which had already started wallowing out.
now when you are alseep in the dentist chair and they ask you to bite down…you don’t always do what you are told, especially because your are numb..and can’t really FEEL if you are biting down. so this began this tooth’s journey into NUBBSVILLE. it ended up being grownd down to a little tiny nub - which doesn’t matter in the long run, because it was so be crowned.
so the wedding was wonderful, the vacation was nice - and the appointment was scheduled for aug 1 to replace ALL the crowns, yep, all 8 of them. so….the appt had to be moved to the 14th.
this is where sleep dentistry can be a blessing or a curse. my appointment was at 730 - which upon arrival time, they give you 2 sleeping pills, put you on the gas - and you go ni-night. until they woke me up…and said…sorry, we can’t save this tooth. it’s the one that had the hole in the crown. i’m going to have to pull it. well, needless to say, i experienced a total mental breakdown at this point. i was loosing a tooth. i don’t know why, but the thought of this was just devastating to me. i’ve worked so hard all these years on those molars…
so out if came, i went home to sleep and drool it off. got up on friday, thought - eh - maybe it’ll be ok. saturday was good, i actually met with a bride and groom about their wedding pictures and had some jokes about my football face. i had solid food saturday night. sunday morning, pancakes - woohoo - on the road to recovery, right? no. sorry.
sunday evening my face started swelling along the jaw line. started, being the key word. shouldn’t have been ’starting to swell’ 3 days later. but it was. it didn’t feel good either.
so i call the dentist monday - about this swelling, which is beginning to smart pretty good by now. they said oh - its fine…come in on tuesday.
so i go in tuesday, they x-ray it - said - looks great!!! it’s fine - the bone graft looks nice - there’s no abcess - your facial swelling is just from the ‘trauma’ of all the work. hey, let’s put you on antibitiotics just in case. (now this should have been my 2nd clue, first being the pain) so amoxicillan it was 1000mg to start, then 500 3 times a day. not a bad dosage for ‘trauma with no infection’ don’t you think?
so off i go back home thinking ok…it’ll get better, while all the while, the pain and swelling got worse. i swished more, rinsed with warm salt water more, used the chorhexidine mouthrinse they gave me (yah - nice chemical to put in your mouth). so tuesday night it was worse. i was ready to pull my face off ala the terminator when he reveals he is a robot. my face is on fire. i picked diane up from the airport - and she was like OMG - your eye is swelling shut. now by this time, i had a lump on the side of my jaw from about my ear to my chin - and it stuck out quite prominately. the top of this thing was mid-cheek, halfway down my neck. any REASONABLE person could tell this was not ‘right’.
so i’m close to tears (actually in tears now) up all night - swallowing pain pills every 2 hours - i call them again in the morning,tell them it’s worse. they said…janet you have to give the antibitiotics time to work. i said hey - even strep throat responds after 24 hours, give me a break, this should not be getting worse! so i called my family physician..trotted down to see her, because at this point, i’m desperate. really desperate. and the pain was getting worse along with the swellling. and that’s when the fever kicked in…yah…fever. she took one look at it and said, honey, i can’t help you - get to an oral surgeon. so i go home, start looking up oral surgeons…which in houston they must all have vaca on wednesdays…because no one was open.
so in the meantime, my dentist calls me back wednesday night…and proceeds to blame ME for the problem. it’s because you smoke he said. it’s the trauma. i was like BULLSHIT buddy. so he tells me to come in thursday, they will look again. they x-ray again, it all looks good again…i’m ready to jump down this guys throat..it is NOT BETTER, IT HURTS so bad, if you can’t fix it - i’m going to the emergency room. 4 days of burning intense pain… so his nurse, slips me this card as soon as he left the room - call this guy - as soon as you leave this office.
so i did…i explained the situation, they said be here at 245 - it was 2 when i called. he looked, studied..looked and said - that bone graft has to go. it’s bad. be here tomorrow as noon, nothing to eat or drink after midnight.
fear and relief….what can i say. i got there at noon yesterday as instructed. they put a nice little cocktail into my veins and off i went to dreamland. when i woke up - i was in no pain, of course, but i was also missing 3 teeth. not the permanent ones, but the temporary crown-bridge thing that was in place over this area. see, when they pull a molar that is inbetween two other teeth,you have a choice, implant or bridge. i chose bridge. so the tooth in front of this was fine - but had been drilled down for bridge prep, and the one behind it which had a root canal years ago - was also in prep. so the regular dentist had just made a 3-tooth temporary bridge.
so i wake up to hear…that bone graft was a MESS!!! there was so much infection underneath it - i had to cut into your jaw and put a drain in there to remove all that BLOOD AND PUS that was in your cheek. you were about 24 hours away from being in septic shock. now of course, that didn’t sink in…i was still all goofball from the meds.
so here i sit saturday morning, writing this sad story..the numbness has finally almost all worn off - still a spot on left side from the inside corner to the middle of my lips and down to the jaw area which is not quite full feeling yet, but i’m guessing as the swelling goes down, the feeling will come back. my mouth is packed with some really nasty looking shit down in that hole..and then there is the drain. EWWWW
but …but…but…it already feels better. my face is looking almost normal already - there is still a small lump, but i’m sure that will go away now in a few days. i don’t feel sick anymore. things are sore, but it’s a good sore as opposed to a really something wrong is sore.
so i go back to the oral surgeon on monday, i’m guessing to have the drain removed, packing replaced, whatever it is he’ll do. i’m sure i’ll be quite awake this time. hope it doesn’t hurt.
that’s all. i do have photos, but they are gross, so i’ll spare.
