THE HELL THAT WILL BE NEXT WEEK

Well, I wish I had never noticed that little hole in my tooth, as it turns out – I will need a root canal. There is a chip and a cavity too close to the pulp.

This is extremely upsetting to me – first there is the expected pain of the procedure, but even more important is the idea that I am “losing” a tooth. I will get some pain relief and I believe that I can have codeine or vicodin afterwards. I have my GTT next week as well – pain will raise your sugar levels – so I am very concerned about this. I have been holding them down pretty well, but you can’t combat pain. I think I scared the dentist – I was crying so hard. He sent me to a specialist- hoping they can better manage my fear of the pain since it is what they do all day. I was very adamant about not getting a crown and looks like I can get an overlay – which retains more of the natural tooth. Who knows with my teeth – the root canal/overlay may actually be stronger than my natural teeth. I have weak teeth- but suffer from bruxism (I clench at night) and have a very strong bite. It wears down your teeth much faster than it should.

I HATE THE DENTIST. I have extremely sensitive teeth and even have to gas for a cleaning. It’s psychically and emotionally painful for me. About 6 yrs ago, I broke a tooth – it just broke – it had to be crowned. I cried the entire time- I was not even in pain – the thought of my tooth being ground down (even though a lot had just broken off) and the sound of the drill were too much for me. In feb/mar of 1998, I had my lower wisdom teeth removed w/o being put under. The oral surgeon thought they would just come out- WELL THEY DIDN’T! In fact, they broke and had to be sawed into pieces. She then had to pull the pieces out with tweezers. I got dry sockets in both and was miserable for weeks. I have more dental horror stories. I had about 6 teeth pulled aside from my wisdom teeth; my mouth is just too small. I wore back brackets on my teeth for years (even before my braces came on) to stretch my mouth – which is a main reason for some the problems I have today – You can’t brush well enough around brackets that nearly cover your whole teeth. I have straight teeth though – thanks to braces – let’s hope I can hold onto these teeth.

This #4 -2nd Bicuspid (2nd premolar) issue crept up on me – I am usually much more diligent about catching little things I think might even remotely be a cavity. I have weak teeth and it seems no matter what I do – I still get cavities. This has always been the case. My mother ended up with abscessed teeth after carrying me – so at the ripe old age of 23 – she had a top dental plate. These has been a fear my whole life – to be toothless or have to wear dentures. I have/had nightmares where my teeth fall out or they just crumble.

Those who have great teeth – please take care of them! I am going to re-dedicate myself to yearly exams. I am not sure I can handle it every 6 months – that is too traumatic for me. I am armed with my GelKam, Listerine and a Soni-care….sigh.

The only shining light next week is that we have a 4-D US at the baby picture place. Yes, we are spending the dough to get in-utero pics of the baby. This is a non-medical need -its just something DINKS do I think.....