Saturday afternoon I was sitting at home, minding my own business while working on the computer. I was chewing on a gummy bear when all of a sudden I bit into something hard. I realized pretty quickly that gummy bears are soft so there shouldn’t be anything hard in my mouth. So I reached in and took out the offending gummy bear only to realize that it was attached to one of my teeth. Well, not one of my teeth really, but one of my crowns. Even though it was not a real tooth, it was still pretty important. With it gone, all I had at the back of my mouth was a tiny little stub. Needless to say, eating soon became a challenge and let’s not even talk about drinking cold water.
Thankfully, I had a previously scheduled appointment with my dentist on Monday, so I was good. I’m not going to lie to you though – I don’t like going to the dentist. It’s nothing against the doctor because as far as dentists go, he’s really great. It’s the whole needle/drill/light-in-the-face thing that bothers me. And it’s the smell – dentist offices even have their own smell. Do you know what I’m talking about? It’s kind-of a sweet smell, stench really, that always makes me think of novocaine.
Since my last visit was a couple of years ago (don’t judge) I had to get new x-rays. They weren’t too bad actually, pretty painless. Then the doc came in and looked at my mouth. He poked and prodded and scraped a little too. Finally, he took off his rubber gloves.
Do you know why the crown came off?
Umm, no?
It’s because you have a cavity in that tooth.
How is that even possible? I mean there’s hardly anything left to it – it’s literally just a little stump hiding under its pretty shell. How could it get a cavity?
Well, I don’t know, but we’re going to have to replace it. (It was then that I started to see dollar signs flashing before my eyes.)
He went on to say that I also needed my teeth cleaned since it had been a while and that I had another filling that would need to be done as well. So far, not too bad. But then he dropped the bomb.
You’re a very strong candidate for braces. (That’s a nice way of saying that my teeth are starting to look all crooked and unless I get them fixed now, I’m going to be a toothless old lady in a few years.)
I actually knew I needed to get braces – I could almost see my teeth shifting over the past two years. It has something to do with not wearing my nightguard and all the grinding I do with my teeth at night. But to hear it spoken out loud – that was another thing entirely.
Me, braces? At 37? Even though I knew it was a possibility, it’s still going to take some time to wrap my mind around the concept. In the meantime, let’s do a recap from our visit today:
- My back tooth, the one that was previously protected by a crown now has a cavity. He is going to have to drill into that tooth to fill the cavity ($100) and then give me a new crown ($500).
- I grind my teeth at night and my nightguard may no longer fit because my teeth have shifted ($400).
- I have a routine filling to be done ($100) and a teeth cleaning ($75).
- I need braces ($7,000??).
Wow…No wonder I don’t like the dentist… It’s a painful in more ways than one.
Do you have any good dentist stories?
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I had that happen too about 14 years ago and it took about two years for me to get the tooth fixed properly. I just chewed on the opposite side of my mouth in the meantime which really can’t be good. 
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