Crowning Glory
2/16/10 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wobblerlorriWell, called the dentist up this morning at 8:30 to see about this damn tooth, and they told me to come on in. So I did, got there about 8:45. Sat in the waiting room until 10:45 -- they were slammed. I didn't mind, I've gone in before and been seen right away, so it was only fair that I should have to wait on occasion.
The dentist came in and looked at it, and said "Oh my, it looks like the whole filling has just cracked!" Peachy. I asked him if it was really feasible to crown it, since I'm 53, how much could my teeth shift in the 30 or so years I have left (my family lives into their 80's or 90's)... he said he could certainly pull it, but that my teeth could shift in as little as 1 or 2 years, and that would mess up all the teeth in the front and around to the right side of my mouth, decay below the gumline, pain, loose teeth, destruction of the bone, and dentures before I was 55 or so.
So yeah, let's put a crown on it. $875, but since my filling was only a week old ($278) they knocked that off, and since I've always paid in full right then, they knocked off another $50 for the aggravation of waiting. So that brought the crown in at $547, so that's okay.
Lots of numbing, plus a bonus shot into the jaw tendon for some reason (which was NOT fun, and tasted really awful), then drill drill drill, twinged a little from gum tenderness, then wax impression, then application of a temporary crown. I'll have my new one in 3 weeks, and I don't have to pay for it until then. Another benefit of paying up front all the times before.
Just about all the teeth top and bottom on the left side of my mouth are now going to be crowns. I have no crowns on the right side of my mouth. Obviously I chew on the left side all the time. I must change that habit and chew on the right predominantly from now on -- that way by the time I die I'll have worn away the right side of my mouth and won't have to be recrowned.
The dentist came in and looked at it, and said "Oh my, it looks like the whole filling has just cracked!" Peachy. I asked him if it was really feasible to crown it, since I'm 53, how much could my teeth shift in the 30 or so years I have left (my family lives into their 80's or 90's)... he said he could certainly pull it, but that my teeth could shift in as little as 1 or 2 years, and that would mess up all the teeth in the front and around to the right side of my mouth, decay below the gumline, pain, loose teeth, destruction of the bone, and dentures before I was 55 or so.
So yeah, let's put a crown on it. $875, but since my filling was only a week old ($278) they knocked that off, and since I've always paid in full right then, they knocked off another $50 for the aggravation of waiting. So that brought the crown in at $547, so that's okay.
Lots of numbing, plus a bonus shot into the jaw tendon for some reason (which was NOT fun, and tasted really awful), then drill drill drill, twinged a little from gum tenderness, then wax impression, then application of a temporary crown. I'll have my new one in 3 weeks, and I don't have to pay for it until then. Another benefit of paying up front all the times before.
Just about all the teeth top and bottom on the left side of my mouth are now going to be crowns. I have no crowns on the right side of my mouth. Obviously I chew on the left side all the time. I must change that habit and chew on the right predominantly from now on -- that way by the time I die I'll have worn away the right side of my mouth and won't have to be recrowned.
