You never know what others are going through
You never know what others are going through. I haven’t posted lately because I have had a number of excruciating, time consuming and expensive oral surgeries in the past month.
For context, I’ve never had a cavity or even a filling. So any tooth issues are new to me. I have great teeth!
But… about a month ago I took a sip of my daughter’s lemonade and it felt REALLY COLD. The next day I was eating soup and it felt REALLY HOT.
I typically have an extremely high pain threshold. These were very strange experiences for me.
Over the following week, I became more and more sensitive to hot and cold drinks and foods. And my tooth and mouth became increasingly sensitive. My upper right molars felt severely “bruised”.
Fast forward and I had an emergency root canal! ($1872). Went to the dentist at 8:45am on a Monday and was at an oral surgeon by 10:30am. Surgeon discovered a hairline fracture in my molar that may have occurred sometime between the last 2 weeks and 2 years from biting down on something as simple as a peppercorn or M&M(!)
This is not how you want to spend any Monday morning - especially when unplanned.
The oral surgeon recommended I go back to the dentist ASAP to have a mold created for a crown. Went 3 days later (first available appt). He says he needs 3 weeks to make sure the root canal “sets". Go home. (Complete waste of time).
Excruciating pain returns. Two minutes into the follow up appt he says the tooth fractured further and needs to be extracted. In sum, the emergency root canal was all for nothing (WTF?!)
Scheduled extraction. Has to be a different type of oral surgeon. No idea why, but ok. Extracted last week ($2072). Another day of missed work, gauze, drooling, blood, inflammation and pain.
Had a follow-up appt today for a check-up with the extraction oral surgeon. Everything looks ok. I go back in July for x-rays and something else like a tooth bone graph ($329?!). Then 2-3 months later get drilled for the temporary tooth in order to make a mold. Then two months after that, they insert the permanent replacement molar. Looking at $5-7k more out of pocket, 8 more months, and who knows how many more appts… 😳
In the meantime, my #4 tooth is now a HOLE. If it’s not replaced with a fake tooth my existing teeth will move and this will affect my bite/jaw, and lead to other problems.
All this to say…
You never know what others are going through
Teeth are fragile, important, and expensive
Be careful judging people with missing teeth - it’s incredibly expensive, they may not be able to afford the replacement and or be in the middle of this eight-month process
Dental Insurance sucks and only covers very little (if anything) other than regular cleaning and sometimes X-rays
Here’s to everyone going through a challenge and trying to swim up unexpected streams. Oftentimes it feels like the current is against us/you.
I SEE AND FEEL FOR YOU!
