How was your Yule??

Well....mine has gotten much better.

Besides getting what I wanted for the holidays (More later when I get photos up) I had to go to the dentist today to find out if I was going to keep my tooth.

This summer I went to the dentist and found that I had this giant abcess under the last molar on my lower right side (#30 for those in the know) and the regular dentist thought she was going to pull it--well I wasn't going to just let her yank my last molar without a second opinion--I've done that a bit too much and have just one molar up, one molar down on that side because of it.

So everytime I got ready to make the appointment to see the orthodontist dentist something would come up and I couldn't get an appointment done. So finally last week I nailed down a time that both Mike & I could set it up...luckily the dentist was able to comply.

Well I thought it had only been since the end of Sept since I saw the reg. dentist and got the referral--but it was end of JULY!!! Oh my....I hadn't realized that it was nearly 6 months....so I did not have high hopes.

This thing didn't hurt but the pressure of chewing was dang annoying.

So I sit down and talk to the ortho-dentist and he said that he thought he could save it, but he wasn't making any promises until he got into the crown to see what was going on--if the tooth was cracked then the best thing to do would be to pull it because it would just keep getting infected until it ate away the bone/jaw...he said he wouldn't pull any punches and it would be up to me as to whether I was going to get it pulled there or the reg. dentist--I would have had the orthodentist do it to tell the truth.

So he took some xrays--really cool ones on the computer so I could see the right away.
he said it looked good, yes it was a big pocket but he didn't see anything in the xray that would automatically call for the removal of that tooth--so what I want to know is what the heck was the reg. dentist thinking of when she thought I had to have it pulled, this is why you go to someone you trust!....

So we made an appointment for later that afternoon...thankgoodnes. But I get a call about an hour after getting home asking if I can come in sooner since they had several cancellations...I assume its because people got stuck in after-christmas shopping and returns, but I didn't ask...I was able to get in an hour earlier. No skin off my nose, get it done sooner, get it done later...didn't matter it was going to get done today.

So I get in, numbed up (joked with the dr over the irony that he was stabbing me in the mouth with numbs-it to make things more confortable...he's got good humor)...he got under the tooth-while we watched "Judge Mathis" on the television...lol...and found...

NO CRACKS!!!!! How relieved was I???? I was still holding my breath though...I was kind of afraid that as he worked on the tooth it might collapse & crumble under the strain but it held up!

He was able to save the tooth...and he filled it in right there! Actually I have to get back to the reg. dentist for smaller cavities anyways, but at least now I can go in and show her that she was going to pull a tooth that didn't need pulling.

Although I am thinking of changing dentists anyways...I really miss Dr. Hung...she was so nice and gentle...and she was willing to try to save teeth instead of yanking them. Before she moved to CA with her hubby, she authorized the replacement of the crown over this particular tooth and did the work herself so it was done right.

She didn't say why, I had assumed it was because the crown had shifted somewhat and wasn't sitting quite as she had hoped...or it could have been that she noticed that the tooth above and the crown weren't meeting just right.

Either way...orthodr says he wants me to come back in 6 months for a free follow up xray to be sure its healing up okay...he had tried to get the pocket to bleed but couldn't do it--I would assume its like when you cut yourself or get poked by a pin, you make it bleed to help flush out some of the infection--but either way he said that he got a little bit of the filling thru the bottom of the root into the pocket that the abcess left but that shouldn't cause any problems...he just wanted to make sure that no infection got back down in the area again.

Then he took another xray to go back to the reg.dr.

Boy what a difference it made! No more black under the tooth, that was the abcess...the tooth had been nearly completely surrounded. The toughest part he said was that my roots are so long...almost an inch long EACH...he calls them "tiger teeth"...the ones he did on the top he said that they kind of intertwined with each other which was why he felt dr. Hong had sent me to him.

I think he felt, tho' he never said it but the way he mentioned it, that trying to remove that tooth without knocking me out would have been a b!+@#. I remember the first one I got out on the top of this side...it had lost a filling and crumbled up near the gumline and the dr didn't want to touch it...but I begged him to pull it--it was really killing me...to the point where I couldn't even sleep at night, nothing would touch the pain anymore....he numbed me up and yanked it out.

NEVER AGAIN....I want to be knocked out for removal....I felt like he was going to break my jaw trying to get it out! I probably should have had a root canal done instead, but I didn't realize how easy they are in reality--it was a big scary word!

A root canal is really no worse than a regular filling...in fact they are probably less painful because they don't use the large burrs that rattle the teeth in your head. Of course you are stuck holding your jaw at its fullest for a couple of hours...that is the most pain I have right now...and you have to deal with seeing actual smoke coming out of your mouth {this is really freaky}....and you have to wait for several hours for the feeling to come back to half your face...but really its not all that bad.

okay....got to go get some more ibuprofen for my jaw...its a little tender yet, opening it to eat is an adventure.