Teeth Part 1

I’ve had several hits on my blog by people looking for info about missing teeth, implants and fake teeth.  I’ve never told my whole teeth story (I gave a condensed version on the post 64) so for those with inquiring minds, here’s the whole story.

Background:

I guess you could say my teeth adventure started when I was 9.  I was riding my bike and grumpily wearing my helmet.  I was riding out of our driveway and instead of staying on the pavement I rode up the grassy embankment like I had done a dozen times before.  This time I fell and hit my front right tooth on the sidewalk, cutting my lip in the process.  There was tons of blood but I managed to not get any on the floor as I ran into the bathroom…I remember be proud of that.  Mom took me to the dentist and he told me I killed the tooth.  Killing a tooth=a root canal.  The root canal happened and I never really thought much about it after that except that every once in a while the dentist would mention that the tooth was gray and did I want to do something about it?  It was gray but I didn’t think it was very noticeable.  And since doing something about it meant putting a cap on it, I was ok leaving it as is.  They told me, more than once, that the cap was cosmetic.  A different dentist later on told me I should have a cap put on but never told me why.  This is important, as it comes into play later.

Fast forward a few years to when I was 12ish.  I think it was the summer before 7th grade.  My cousin was visiting from CA and I went on a Whale Watch with my Aunt and my cousin…other might have been along but I don’t remember.  I do remember that it was dark as the boat was pulling it, there was a thunder and lightening storm and I had a toothache.  It just kept getting worse.  It got so bad that the right side of my face started to swell.  It got pretty big.  Mom decided that that was bad and off to the dentist we went.  It turns out that the root canal had some kind of infection.  So they put a wick in to drain it…basically they put some gauze in my gums.  The good news is that it worked and my face returned to normal.  The bad news is that the infection ate into the bone and killed the tooth to the right of it.  Guess what that means?  If you guessed a root canal, you were right!  Cause dead tooth=root canal. 

July 2000 with my two dead teeth and my two day old nephew

So now I’ve had two root canals.  I still didn’t think much about them until I was living in China in 2002.  Then I had what looked like a zit on top of the scar on my gums from the drain.  It was a little hard to do anything about since I was living in China so I waited until Mid-Year. While I was in Thailand I went to the dentist.  He said it was an infection and that he could take care of it.  Due to my schedule and the fact that I didn’t want to have oral surgery in another country without my mother, I decided to wait.  Yes, I was 22 by that time but oral surgery (to me!) is a big deal and recovering in a hotel room just didn’t seem like fun.  I had great friends that would have taken good care of me but I wanted my mom.

With my friend’s grandma at a Starbucks in Beijing, 2004. Still have two dead teeth.

So I waited till I got home and I went to an endodontist.  He was AMAZING even if he did cut open my gums and clean out the root canal while I was awake.  All I felt was pressure.  I didn’t love the guy who had done my two root canals…he was not very nice and could use a little work on his bedside manner.  But this guy?  I would go back to him in a heartbeat if I needed another root canal.  He was so good.  The part that hurt the most is when he removed the stitches. 

Memorial Day, 2007 with two dead teeth that in matter of months would be no more…Can you see my gray tooth?

Now you know about 1/2 of my oral history.  Aren’t you excited?  Don’t worry, there’s more to come and it’s even more fun!

A preview of what’s to come:

June 2007…only one dead tooth now…