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The great Tooth Saga

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  • The great Tooth Saga

    Ok so this will include details that some people may find gross, and you will probably end up knowing way more about my teeth than you ever wanted to.

    I'm writing this here just to have it all in one place and also to be a cautionary tale about tooth care. Also please no "expert" advice I am already consulting those with medical degrees and dealing with this.

    So I never took very good care of my teeth, I don't know why I just didn't. A couple of years ago I go to the dentist after putting it off for a while for a regular checkup. Now around this time I was really busy and stressed out with stuff. the gums directly behind my two front teeth and one other tooth began to get inflamed, then receed and break down and get a spongy feel to them and actually start to come off. They were sore and would bleed A LOT, on a hair trigger too. so when I go into the dentist I point this out to them. The dentist takes a look and thinks it may be something called ANUG, that stands for Acute Necrotizing Ulcerative Gingivitis. Google it if you want but it's nasty. Now if I did have it (and we're still not entirely sure if that was it) it would have only been a very small and mild case compared to what I saw online. So the did a couple different things, first to be honest this scared the shit out of me so I started taking better care of my teeth and my dentist admits that I do take better care them, a lot better. They gave me medicated mouthwash and had me take vitamins and when I was in for a filling the gave me a scaling while I was already frozen. after the scaling and a little recovery time I got my gum pockets measured and to be honest I didn't do to badly almost all 2s and 3s with one 4 all things considered that's not too bad.

    The breakdown of my gums stopped and then reversed and they healed back to where they were and we went on with my life. Then it happened again, I got checked out again and saw a periodontist who at the time said it looked like I had burned my gums or scratched them with something. Basically it started to heal on it's own, helped by the fact that I scrubbed and bled it thoroughly. I've since learned that basically when I get a great deal of stress and/or low sleep it will come back. Usually shows up every 3-4 months for a few days to a week or so and then goes away pretty quickly. It's just something that happens when my immune system gets week and never gets very severe, never as bad as the first time and only behind my front two teeth.

    It sucks but I live with it and just take better care of my teeth and honestly it's not too bad, and I can tell when it's starting and help it go away faster.


    Then last august I decided to go to a con, it was a lot of fun and I want to go again this year. However a few days before going I took a bite of something that jabbed behind my front tooth a little, and this hurt, A LOT. the pain went away pretty quickly and I just figured my gums were flaring up again as they get sore when they do. Boy was I wrong...

    During my vacation I began to get toothaches, really powerful sharp toothaches that would come and go. The pain would shoot around a few different teeth in the top, middle right of my teeth. I couldn't really do much about it at the time and seemed like it was fading away anyways so I left it until I got home. well when I got home I still had the tooth aches but they were lessening. I saw the dentist about a week after I got home. However before that my gums swelled up a lot, and my gums even split a little behind one tooth, (front right tooth) and when i finally got to the dentist my cheek had swelled up a bit and was rather sore. My tooth also developed a weird pressure sensitivity, basically if it was touched in one spot I'd feel it in the whole tooth.

    The dentist took a look and prescribed some antibiotics. I went on got the drugs and got to spend the next few days begin absolutely exhausted to the point of not even being able to sit up for more than and hour or two, fortunately due to timing I only missed one day of work. The drugs cleared up all of the symptoms but a new one appeared. A lump on my gums that will swell up and leak puss. yeah I know gross, I think it's an abcess. While I didn't have the tooth ache as much I did feel a pressure one my front tooth and when I open my mouth I feel a tugging on it as well. The dentist inspects it and takes some xrays and determine that it is directly connected to one specific tooth, one of my canines, right next to my front tooth.

    So I got to have a root canal, oh yay, do the happy root canal dance. oh joy the freezing came out halfway through So after that lovely experience (getting used to a new shape for my tooth was weird) I was given a another prescription of antibiotics at some point as well don't exactly remember at what point that was. about three weeks later I call the dentist again asking when the lump is actually supposed to disappear...

    Well that means another trip to the dentist. They decide to send me to a specialist, I go to see an orthodontist. The orthodontist does an inspection and measures my gum pockets around my front tooth and make a discovery. my front tooth has ridges on the back of, the dentist had noticed this and taken xrays to make sure it hadn't been cracked, which it hadn't. well it seems these ridges make a groove that continues down past my gums, if you've ever had you gum pockets measured you know it's not pleasant when its a 2 or a 3. This was an eight, and he measured it. twice. I think that was quite frankly the most painful experience in my life. He determines that basically they need to reshape the tooth as it is basically an open hole in my gums and it may be connected to the abcess.

    So this is late october by the way, we schedule the surgery for Jan 25th after all is said and done. While I wait I discover that breathing in cold air can make my tooth hurt sometimes, welcome to fucking Canada. I still feel the tugging and pressure sometimes. So we finally reach the surgery day, after booking off work and arrangements at school that is. So I go in, they freeze me, cut open my gums discover it's not related to the abcess, grind my tooth down, put in bone mineral to regrow the bone a little (it's cow marrow based I'm a minotaur now.) and then sew me back up. I spend the next couple days recovering, bleeding, oozing that sort of stuff with medicated mouthwash and more antibiotics, the gums have healed back together now but my stitches are still in I'm getting them taken out tomorrow. I have noticed the feeling of pressure is gone and the pain from the cold air is gone too at least. I'm curious to see if this will help prevent the gum condition mentioned about a few hundred words ago. So the theory right now about the abcess is the next tooth over is infected or the root canal was ineffective.

    So tomorrow stitches out, general check up on the 14th and then another followup on the 22nd.

    My sister when I was telling her part of this had an irresistible urge to floss, to which I say good. The moral, take care of your teeth.
    Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
    Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

  • #2
    That's interesting, in a sick way. I went to Tijuana back in 2009 to get my top four front teeth crowned and the rest of my mouth tuned up. No abscesses or other stuff, but I looked like a monster for the day I had no crowns. Icky.

    Recently one of my crowned teeth started screaming in pain. For 3 or 4 days. Then the tooth NEXT to it started screaming. The first tooth got quiet, the 2nd tooth got upset. I went to a dentist on an emergency request, the fucker HURT. After an x-ray, we found that the first tooth had had a root canal, it should NOT have felt anything. But it did. There was a bump in the hard palette in my mouth, on the side the teeth were on. We figured it was an infection, so we started me with some good horse-pills. Worked ok.
    Still aches sometimes, it just means I have to save up $$$$$ and get the crown removed, tooth fixed up (root canal or such) and re-crown it. This is NOT cheap.
    In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
    She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

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    • #3
      You know, you can take care of your teeth and still have problems. I didn't before, but now I brush enough, floss, use prescription toothpaste, get cleanings twice a year, etc, and still my teeth get worked on more than my car does. So don't feel bad. But I do tell kids it's important to brush/floss. I paid $2300 out-of-pocket and thousands more via insurance. Some people just have soft tooth enamel or some other issue they can't really control.
      "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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      • #4
        my insurance covers $1000 a year and only does 50% I'm pretty sure it's maxed out now, the surgery cost 1500 and the root canal was 560, not to mention all the little stuff.
        Forgot to mention one of the stitches worked it's way loose and I had to remove it or brushing my teeth would have yanked it out. Also I actually reccommend staying up late the night before a surgery like that so you can just go home and sleep rather than be awake for when the freezing comes out.
        Last edited by gremcint; 02-06-2012, 12:31 PM.
        Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
        Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

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        • #5
          You have my sympathies. My teeth need so much work it's not even funny. Unfortunately, my teeth are kind of low on the priority list right now. If I get that job in Alaska, maybe I'll be able to rack up enough overtime to get my teeth worked on.
          Question authority, but raise your hand first. -Alan M. Bershowitz

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          • #6
            I will advocate for going to Tijuana for tooth/dental repair. It is HALF the price of American dentistry, and the offices are as clean or cleaner than the American ones. The place I went to had the technology better than the other dentists I've been to. Also, crowns in America take up to a week or more to create. The crowns I had were done the next day. No "fake" crowns to hold it up. It was "drill tooth down to look like monster. Root canal on 2 teeth. Mold up the New Teeth, decide color. Ready next day"
            I'm not kidding.
            And do not be scared. You stay in south San Diego in a small part called San Ysidro. You can catch a bus or walk to the border. You go through (keep kleenex or TP with you). Taxis are waiting for you, 5 bucks a piece no matter how long the ride is. He drops you off right in front of the door. You go in.
            When the appointment is done, doc calls a taxi for you, 5 bucks to go back to border.
            That's it!!!
            In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
            She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

            Comment


            • #7
              I maxed my insurance this past year, but my Health Savings Account covered the rest. I also use that for the boxes of contact lenses my vision plan doesn't cover (only covers half a year) and glasses. If your job offers it, get it. It rolls over, whereas I think Flexible Spending Accounts don't.
              "Is it hot in here to you? It's very warm, isn't it?"--Nero, probably

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              • #8
                Quoth Der Cute View Post
                I will advocate for going to Tijuana for tooth/dental repair. It is HALF the price of American dentistry, and the offices are as clean or cleaner than the American ones. The place I went to had the technology better than the other dentists I've been to. Also, crowns in America take up to a week or more to create. The crowns I had were done the next day. No "fake" crowns to hold it up. It was "drill tooth down to look like monster. Root canal on 2 teeth. Mold up the New Teeth, decide color. Ready next day"
                I'm not kidding.
                And do not be scared. You stay in south San Diego in a small part called San Ysidro. You can catch a bus or walk to the border. You go through (keep kleenex or TP with you). Taxis are waiting for you, 5 bucks a piece no matter how long the ride is. He drops you off right in front of the door. You go in.
                When the appointment is done, doc calls a taxi for you, 5 bucks to go back to border.
                That's it!!!
                I'm in Canada.
                Interviewer: What is your greatest weakness?
                Me: I expect competence from my coworkers.

                Comment


                • #9
                  You should try the sonic care tooth brushes. It is way better that using a manual toothbrush. It feels like the dentist cleaned your teeth.
                  "Beam me up Scotty there is no intelligent life down here."

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                  • #10
                    I'm gonna jump on the take care of your teeth bandwagon. Like the OP I never took very good care of my teeth when i was younger (im still dealing with the consequences). My wake up call, and I count myself somewhat lucky in that I did not have a ton of pain, was when I bit into a caramel and a portion of one of my back molars literally pulled away with the caramel. I'll save the gory details. There was no pain, which my dentists told me means that tooth had been dead for a really long time for that to be the case. Anyhow, I got a filling/crown and now take much better care of my teeth than I used to. I'm still working on a few that need attention, but let me tell you that i wish I hadn't been so neglecting.

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                    • #11
                      My poor housemate has severe odontophobia from lots of bad experiences when she was a child. As a result, little tooth care, going all the way up in the last couple of years to her getting in a lot of pain. Screaming pain. The dentist that her mother and I persuaded her to go and see took the 'you're a complete moron to let your teeth get to this condition' route and told her he didn't have time to deal with it or teach her how to brush her teeth now. Wanker.

                      Round here the NHS won't do dental procedures under anaesthetic (at least that's what the wanker said...Hampshire must suck for services because I've been told by a doctor's surgery I dropped like a rotting cactus that there's no NHS counsellors in the county either...) so Housemate's mum went private and got her into a clinic in Soton who do conscious sedation - she had three procedures total, one for one side, one that failed because they couldn't get her under, and one that went so well they knocked £200 off the price. All I can say is yay for Valium. ^^ She has less teeth now, but eating is fine and she gets no pain any more!! And the lovely lady at the clinic is now her and her mam's regular dentist - odontophobia is going down. Her mam has told me to keep nagging her to brush her teeth though.
                      "...Muhuh? *blink-blink* >_O *roll over* ZZZzzz......"

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                      • #12
                        For those who have such bad tooth problems they're willing to do anything to preserve them, I'll tell you a little secret:

                        Children's chewable vitamins.

                        The fluoride present in them does a great job of preserving your teeth, with one drawback: It will tend to discolor them.

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                        • #13
                          I should of added you can try using a water pik. That is pretty good at getting in between tight spaces. Some of the water piks allow you to use mouthwash in conjuction with the water.

                          Though i did see somewhere that they were selling a sonic flosser.
                          "Beam me up Scotty there is no intelligent life down here."

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                          • #14
                            You have my sympathies on this. When I was 20, I had a root canal and a porcelain fuse crown done on one of my molars. Before the root canal, sometimes out of nowhere I would get this sharp agonizing pain that had me to the point of tears. Then fast forward to 5 years later, I was eating a now and later and I hear a crunching sound, and I find out that the crown got damaged...I freaked the fuck out needless to say. Aside from that, quite a bit of my back teeth have been chipping and look terrible and I have a few that are missing in the back as a result of my teeth chipping. SO thinks that it could be due to my habit of grinding my teeth at night when I'm asleep. I tried those night guards and they feel so bulky and weird. So one day I'll have to save up to go to Central America and get work done on my teeth because they are just plain fucked up. But my teeth have been on the back burner because of moving, bills among other things.
                            I don't get paid enough to kiss your a**! -Groezig 5/31/08
                            Another day...another million braincells lost...-Sarlon 6/16/08
                            Chivalry is not dead. It's just direly underappreciated. -Samaliel 9/15/09

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                            • #15
                              For the most part, my teeth are fine. Discoloration, yes, from smoking and drinking way too much soda, but fundamentally sound.

                              However, one of my front teeth is BAD. I blame one of my exes. He instigated a pillow fight, and to this day I don't know what else he had in the pillowcase, but it knocked my tooth out of alignment a bit. I don't like smiling because of it.

                              And then there's one of my wisdom teeth, but that one just has come in as far as it will (not much) and will need to be removed.
                              Unseen but seeing
                              oh dear, now they're masquerading as sane-KiaKat
                              There isn't enough interpretive dance in the workplace these days-Irv
                              3rd shift needs love, too
                              RIP, mo bhrionglóid

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