I'm already cut up and half dead

Sometimes I wonder why crap happens to me. I know I am the only person in the world with problems.

In 1994 I had the misfortune of having a root canal on “Tooth 14”, which on me is the 2nd tooth from the very back. In 1998, I had to have another root canal on the tooth next to it. “#15”. Neither has ever given me any problems. About 2 years ago, my dentist replaced the crown on #14 (I think). But again…no problems with anything.

This past Friday I started having pain in that upper left area of my mouth. It was a weird sort of pain. Not like a cavity really. It comes and goes. Like a pressure. I hoped it would go away if I ignored it. I spent the weekend doped up on Ibuprofen. On Monday I called Edgewood Dental Care because they have “sedation dentistry” and I have wanted to visit them since we moved here. I did not like the dentist we chose from our insurance network. I didn’t care if I had to pay, it would be worth it to feel no pain.

After taking X-rays and looking inside my mouth with this cool wee camera that projected the images onto the TV on the wall in the exam room, the dentist determined that there was no decay or abscess. So what was causing the pain? He said it Could Be a crack in the tooth under the crown. But which tooth? He said from the X-ray, he would surmise #15 because he could only see 2 roots rather than 3 and the bone did not look as strong (or something) around that tooth. He said if it was a crack, there is probably not much that can be done to save it and I should probably just have it extracted. Since it was the very back tooth, I would not need a bridge and I probably would not miss it. But he told me to see an endodontist if I wanted to explore the option of saving the tooth.

He gave me a prescription for Amoxicillin and Vicodin. Yay. I took a Vicodin last night and I don’t get what these celebrities get out of it. Do I need to take 2? It made my head spin a bit, but really didn’t do all that much to relieve my pain. 3 Ibuprofen seem to do a better job.

With my dive trip coming up, the prospect of a re-treat root canal did not sound very appealing. So I made an appointment for noon today with the oral surgeon to see about extracting it. After my ibuprofen wore off, I started feeling around up there with my tongue. (now that I had a better idea of what was going on) The pain seemed to be on #14. I could push on 15 til the cows come home and not feel a thing.

So this morning I cancelled the appointment with the oral surgeon and made one with the endodontist at 3pm.

Matthew’s flight to Oklahoma City was at 2pm. We ate lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (have I mentioned the Parmesan Garlic sauce there? Try it. Right now.) before heading to the airport. I am really going to miss him this week with all my tooth drama going on.

So anyway, this endodontist…came down from the mountain this morning. Yes I have a certain prejudice against southern people. Those accents! And why do they move so slowly? I automatically deduct about 50 IQ points whenever I hear that “ya’ll come back now” accent. Especially from a man. Yeah I know…I’m a bitch. Well this endodontist is one such southern person. He talked so softly and so slowly, I could barely understand him. But who knows, he could be a genius.

He took another X-ray and probed around for a while. He had me bite down on a cotton swab (not bad), and a plastic stick (holy god that hurt). I told him my thoughts about tooth 14 vs 15. He said I screamed out in more pain when biting down on 15. I DON’T GET THIS!!! This very minute my painkillers aren’t working and 14 is killing me! What is going on here???? Do I need yet a third opinion?

On top of that, he can’t get me in to do a re-treatment (on the wrong tooth) until the first week in May!!! We leave for Roatan on May 6! I don’t want to risk pain, swelling etc right before my trip. So I made an appointment for the 15th. Both dentists told me that taking these antibiotics regularly should make the pain go away completely in a few days. In fact, both of them said that some people take the antibiotics and think that it cures the problem.

I had to spend about $50 to see the dentist yesterday, the consult with the endodontist today cost $150, but my crappy insurance should reimburse me for half of that. If I decide to go ahead with the root canal re-treatment it will cost $950. And my insurance will not cover a dime of it. There is a 12-month waiting period for such things and we just signed up for this plan in February.

On the other hand, if I go the extraction route, it will be covered by my crappy insurance if I chose an in-network oral surgeon. But I am not doing either thing until we decide on which tooth it is!!! This is crazy!! I am not having 2 teeth extracted nor am I having a re-treatment on 2 teeth. No way.

I just don’t know what to do. What I want to know is…both teeth have been sealed over by crowns for years. So if there is an infected root (which did not appear on the Xray, or he just can’t see it. But if you can’t see it…how do you even know it’s there????) how did it happen? I am leaning more toward a crack (yes…I went to dental school) because they both admitted you would not be able to see a crack on the X-ray. And if he starts the re-treatment and discovers it is cracked then it will have to be extracted anyway and I wasted $950.

What do I DO?????????????????????????????????????????????????

I think I am going to do the consult with the oral surgeon and see what he says. I don’t know what else to do.
Tomorrow I have to sit through 7 hours of Real Estate Continuing Ed. How am I going to get through that??? I need to get it over with, but the thought of sitting there in pain…..