dentists

I went in to the dentist this morning. Instead of the prickly old man I got last time it was a nice young woman who made me feel very at ease. Again they had trouble with the x-ray and ended up giving me a full x-ray. I stood alone in a broom closet with this giant machine spinning around my head beeping. It was rad.

Not only are my roots in different directions but the tooth is cracked. So I have to go to an Oral surgeon on Monday to get the blasted thing out. It sucked because I liked this doctor so much and I felt so comfortable, I was really hoping she would be able to do it there and then. On the plus I got to see my 3 other impacted wisdom teeth in the x-ray.

As you can see in this artists rendering… the only impacted one at an angel is at the bottom right side. The others are straight which means they aren’t irritating any teeth beside them. I’m going to ask the oral surgeon what he/she recommends I do about these others. Maybe it’s worth the extra pain and time just to take them all out.

A couple of months ago I got this infection in the gum of one of my lower front teeth. The pain was bad and spreading threw the whole left side of my mouth. I called the dentist in Nora. 3 weeks later they finally saw me. It was gingivitis. He cleaned it and gave me an anti-bacterial mouth wash and it got better.
A couple of days ago I was feeling pain again on the left side. Last night it was unbearable. So I called the dentist. They said they could take me as an emergency. I was thinking that the infection had spread. So I went and told him about the infection. He looked around, apparently more thoroughly then the dentist in Nora because he found a cavity in my upper left side wisdom tooth. Also known as the only wisdom tooth I have. They have to pull it!! They have to pull a tooth from my head!! I’ve never had any medical procedure so I’m freaked out about it.
He wanted to do it right away so he did an x-ray and sent me to the waiting room. So I sat there not knowing if they were going to do it ASAP or not and not being able to call my mom! I was gagging to much for the x-ray, so he called me in and we tried it again. I didn’t gag but it still didn’t get the roots. He said that in order to get the roots he would have to stick the x-ray plate.. thing in way back and he didn’t think I could handle that. Apparently if the roots are straight pulling it takes about 1 minuet.. if the roots are curved in opposite directions, like an anchor it can take an hour. I guess he’s going to try and get another x-ray before he does it, I’m guessing after he numbs me up so I don’t gag.

It’s going down tomorrow. I just hope to God the roots are nice and straight and it wont take to long. The good news is that he said the rest of my teeth were beautiful. They should be since I bought this electric tooth brush a while ago, and have been manically taking care of my teeth to get ride of this gingivitis, which the dentist says I have. So that’s good.

To be completely honest… I have never really spent any time taking care of my teeth. Ever. I snus, I drink too much coffee, and yet I’ve never had a cavity, my teeth are white as pearls, and I’ve never had chronic bad breath. So it is pretty amazing that the only problem I have now is 1 cavity in a wisdom tooth. But that’s all in the past. I am now dedicated to brushing twice a day and flossing. In my defense it’s hasn’t been just me being lazy. I have this highly sensitive gag reflex that makes brushing and flossing hellish.

The whole thing is going to coast 1 or 2 thousand kronor, which is a lot when your not use to paying more then 100:- ($14) to see a doctor. The dental system is a little messed up if you ask me. The nurse here said if I just wanted a check up I would have to get on the waiting list and should not expect an appointment for at least a year!