What the heck is going on in my mouth? (Dental question)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi gang. To start with, I just had a consultation w/my new dentist yesterday w/X-rays and so on, and have another appointment on Tuesday where actual work will be done. So I’m not asking this in lieu of going to my dentist. I could even call them since they have an emergency line. I’m just not sure if this counts as a dental emergency, so naturally I thought I’d ask total strangers on the web. :slight_smile:

After ignoring my teeth for waaaaay too long, I have a cavity in one of my lower teeth that’s been causing me some serious pain for the past four days or so. This was helped somewhat by Orajel and ice placed between my thumb & index finger (bizarre acupressure trick, but it really did work–and it’s not woo, according to a study).

I hunted frantically for a new dentist and saw a great periodontist yesterday (he was the only guy who had a free appt. on a Saturday, plus wow, he has great Yelp reviews) and he took X-rays of my entire mouth, did the cold-air test, and naturally at the time I didn’t feel pain (that always happens–I look like a paranoid idiot when I can’t replicate the problem!). Actually, the x-rays were the only painful part of the process, because the… what do you call it, the tray/plate? Anyway it was pressing on my mouth in unpleasant ways as the assistant moved it around to get all the various angles.

Summary of findings: Before x-rays Doc thought I might need root canal / extraction, but after, he was pleasantly surprised that the tooth was actually not as deep as he’d thought and a filling should be fine. He also said the rest of my teeth were in quite good shape considering I’d been so bad at seeing dentists, and only a few little cavities were found, which he’d work on after we get this other thing taken care of. He made a follow-up for Tuesday with the general dentist who does fillings. In the meantime he recommended 600mg ibuprofen since I didn’t want painkillers, and also suggested I get ACT fluoride as part of my regular hygiene, since I have kinda dry mouth due to my antidepressant. The rest of the day followed as usual, with some bouts of the intermittent pain but nothing terrible. I bought the ACT and did the swishing, which did cause some pain to the cavity but again, I rode the wave and got over it.

Today: I woke up and OH MY GOD the pain–but what’s weird is that it’s not in the cavity tooth, but the one right behind it. If I place the slightest amount of pressure on this, which I’m calling the Evil Tooth, terrible pain commences–far worse than anything the cavity had caused. The gums aren’t swollen as far as I can tell. Testing the other teeth surrounding it, I find that the cavity tooth right in front of it is painless when pressed, as are the rest of the teeth in front; but behind the Evil Tooth, there is slight pain–but it feels mostly due to the association with the Evil Tooth.

Right now the Evil Tooth feels like it doesn’t belong in my mouth–like it’s some foreign object that’s been jammed into place out of nowhere. As long as I don’t touch it in any way it’s only mild pain, some dull throbbing, but as I said, even the slightest touch from my tongue causes protest. I don’t even want to try eating because if I bite down and my upper teeth accidentally put pressure on this Evil Tooth, it’s going to be torturous.

Any ideas on what the heck could’ve happened when x-rays taken YESTERDAY found nothing in that tooth (I don’t think), and even the cavity tooth beside it was considered relatively minor.

Also, is this an emergency worth calling the dentist’s emergency line for, or can/should I wait until tomorrow? I’ve been looking at various definitions of “dental emergencies” and most of them involve broken/cracked teeth, though a few do refer to major pain.

Help?

2

Perhaps you cracked the tooth and the x-ray cards irritated it. Cracked teeth can hurt like the devil once irritated. I suggest you call the dentist first thing Monday and explain what you are experiencing.

3

Ohh, that’s an interesting possibility, carnut, thank you for responding so quickly. Although, wouldn’t the cracks have shown up in the x-ray? Then again, perhaps they were too small to be of note at the time. (Just did a quick Google… and yeah, apparently something called Cracked Tooth Syndrome can be too small to show up on an x-ray.) And honestly the guy who did the x-rays had to move that tray around over and over again because it wasn’t being placed correctly once I bit down. There were about 12 total x-rays taken, but I must’ve had to “bite down” about twice that often. My actual dentist wasn’t in the room at the time so I couldn’t tell if this guy was just inept or it’s a normal thing to have to cram the tray in multiple times before it “sticks the landing,” so to speak.

Seriously the cavity itself was bad, but this thing makes me want to grab the Evil Tooth with a pair of pliers and just yank the fucker out.

Anyhoo if that could be the problem, it doesn’t sound emergency-worthy, which is good. I don’t want to get a rep for being a hypochondriac. (Although I totally am. For example, most people would probably think as you did, cracked tooth, abcess, what have you. Me, my first thoughts with this pain were, “Heart attack!! Cancer!” It’s very tiring.)

Thanks again, carnut!

4

I had been average to below average about dental care for a few years, only to get aggressive last year. After a good cleaning & some follow up work I found I had tooth pain far worse than when I was ignoring it.

Ultimately I think teeth can get comfortable in their funky environs, slowly deteriorating, without you noticing. When you start keeping them clean I found they react to every little thing for a few months until they settle in for the new routine. For me I had a relatively new crown removed and replaced before I was pain free with this new dentist.

5

I was absolutely convinced my problem tooth was the 2nd from last molar, until my dentist took a look in there and took pictures, showing the problem was, indeed, the last molar. He told me the nerves to teeth aren’t exact, they branch off from larger nerves in the jaw and the brain can interpret the location incorrectly. So the painful tooth didn’t seem painful to my brain, but the one next to it did.

I’m thinking that might be what’s going on here. And the number of xrays sounds like a lot. Were they film or digital? The newer digital ones have slightly bigger plates that I have to bite down on, and the techs know this, but it’s also a much faster process and I don’t recall needing more than four. If they’re dealing with film still, it’s not as quick or exact so maybe would require more takes if the tech isn’t very good at it. I don’t remember exactly, but there are the ones taken every couple years, and then there’s another one that’s a kind of panoramic view that includes the mandibles done every 5 years I think, but that one is not done with those bite plates.

Anyway, if that tooth was already having a problem, I wonder if what was done irritated it enough to cause the inflammation you’re experiencing now. Did you take the ibuprofen to no effect? If you can’t eat or relax or sleep, then it constitutes an emergency according to my dentist. He would be very disappointed if I waited to call him because he doesn’t want his patients to be in pain. (we had that conversation when I didn’t call him right away when I realized a temporary crown was too tall and needed to be shaved down, and it wasn’t anywhere near “pain” just uncomfortable if I wasn’t careful chewing)

6

That’s a good point. In the past two weeks, knowing that I was likely headed for a dentist, I have been a bit more, um, aggressive in my dental routine–e.g. flossing twice a day instead of just when I remember (sorry, I know that’s probably yucky) and buying an electric toothbrush–which I really love but maybe I’m not using it properly yet and am overdoing it? Or maybe I’ve actually cleaned off layers of nice, thick, protective tartar, ha ha. No, seriously, thanks for making me think of this, 2gigch1.

Hmm, another good point, thanks SeaDragonTattoo! My referred pain is all over the map (on the side of the problem tooth or teeth, as the case may be). I actually now wonder if the cavity–which my dentist did seem surprised turned out to be so minor considering the pain I was describing–wasn’t the problem in the first place. Maybe it was the tooth next door (lower left 2nd molar for me too, funnily enough!) that was causing the sensitivity/pain, and I just assumed it was the cavity tooth because… well, y’know, it’s a visible cavity, so why not? :smiley:

If it’s the other way around (cavity bad, 2nd molar good but causing fake pain), that would really weird me out, because it is so specific to this particular tooth! Lightly tap 1st molar, slight pressure/pain but otherwise normal. Lightly tap cavity tooth, no pain at all. Lightly tap Evil 2nd Molar Tooth, fifty tiny demons stabbing my jaw with razor-sharp pitchforks.

Good questions! Took me a bit to research but I think they were digital, because I do remember from the last time I went to a dentist back in the days when knighthood was in flower, the dentist used the familiar cardboard doohickey. This one had what looked like a glass plate covered with a colorful yellow (or red or blue) rubber guard.

In my case my dentist wanted a full look from every angle because it had been such a long time since I’d had any real dental workup (as in at least 12 years) and I had no x-rays to send to him from my previous dentist because, very very sadly, as I found out when I was looking for help this week, that dentist died. He was such a sweetheart, too, and only 51! Unnecessary detail to follow.

I want to share what a doll my old dentist was. First, the root canal he gave me was completely painless, ditto the insertion of a post and crown. He was also completely nonjudgmental about my letting a cavity get so bad in the first place, allaying my fears. And finally, since I was on SSDI (disability) at the time, I asked him for a payment plan for all these rather expensive procedures–I also humbly asked if he’d like a website designed for him, since it was 2001 and he still didn’t have a site; maybe I could knock a couple of hundred bucks off the fee with an in-kind trade? Anyway, he said he’d consider the website thing but also said, “but don’t worry about the trade. Consider this pro-bono.” Thousands of dollars of dental work! Can you imagine?

Anyway, sorry for the digression. So yesterday, when I glanced around to look at the x-rays, I noticed that most had just three teeth in each photo, maybe four, so I guess the tech would’ve taken… uh, however many x-rays are necessary to get all your teeth at that rate? Anywhere from 8 to 11? Damn. (So basically I’m destined to get a brain tumor, right?) And each one required at least 1 - 3 re-adjustments because either he messed up or I have a weird-ass mouth shape, I have no idea. And some of them definitely hurt, not just discomfort but ow!-type hurt.

Aw, your guy sounds like a good, conscientious dentist too! Oh yeah, I hate that temporary “not quite the right height” crown feeling.

The ibuprofen did help yesterday somewhat when it was just the “regular” pain that came for a while and left for a few hours (or was exacerbated by drinking something cold). Today with this Evil Tooth issue, I might as well be taking M&Ms. The Orajel isn’t working anymore either, nor my precious ice massage trick. OTOH, I put a damp hot towel against my check and that soothes it somewhat.

There’s fairly lowish level pain consistently, I’d say maybe a 2 or 3 on a scale of 10? Sometimes it starts radiating outward again and then it jumps to a 6, and it even hurts my sinuses under my eye and near my ear. If I happen to let my upper teeth touch my bottom ones, or if I let my tongue flop against it, we’re up to an 8. If I actually bite down on it? This one goes to 11, and I ain’t trying that again.

Haven’t eaten anything today. I’ll probably just have some soup for dinner because if I accidentally bite on that I am going to be PISSED OFF.

If it were just after-hours I’d feel better about calling, but Sunday, plus night time now? Doesn’t seem worth it. Especially since it’s not as if it’s gotten worse throughout the day (she said nervously, tempting fate). I can probably wait it out until tomorrow morning–I suspect there’s nothing they can do for me until then anyway–unless someone says it’s definitely, like, an abscess that’s about to burst and kill me.*

Thank you very very much, both of you! It’s really good to hear some experiences and to get some ideas that explain what this could be.

  • Please Og, please don’t let anyone say it’s an abscess about to burst and kill me!
7

Could be referred pain. The pain actually being in the bad tooth, but seeming to be in the Evil one. I remember back when I had teeth one bout of feeling the pain in the top teeth, but the dentist fixed the one he thought it was which was on the bottom and the pain went away.

8

That’s great! Lucky you had a dentist who could suss out the real problem. If this really is the fault of the bad tooth (or I should say, the obviously bad tooth w/the cavity), it’s the most specific referred pain ever. I would understand if I touched the cavity tooth and then felt the referred pain, but here it’s only my touching the Evil Tooth that sends daggers into my jaw. I can’t even talk properly, I’ve been holding my tongue in place so that my stupid upper teeth won’t accidentally clamp down on the Evil Tooth.

Anyhoo after a nearly sleepless night, I wrote an email to my DDS super-early this a.m., and of course he called back just when I’d finally fallen asleep, so I juuust missed him. He left a message saying he wanted to talk to me and he’d tell his front staff to forward me directly to him–and I should let them know that too when I called. But of course when I called back ten minutes later, they wouldn’t put me through because ‘he’s with patients all day’ even though I said I was just calling him back, etc. The gatekeepers are running the asylum!

It’s amazing how much nothing the ibuprofen is doing. Sigh.

New data point, btw: when I tried gently flossing the tooth, whenever I put the floss between it and the cavity tooth, the pain relieves for just an instant. It really feels as if this other molar has shifted out of place or has gotten bigger, and pushing it back gently w/the floss helps. (Of course I know that’s impossible, I’m just saying how it feels.)

Thanks again everyone for the ideas!

9

I admire your stoicism. Sounds like you’re going to wait it out until your appointment? Maybe you know someone who could swing you a couple vicodin to get you through the night? I would think the dentist might have at least called in a couple tablets for you to get you through. You’re way too nice to the desk staff.

10

dentist here, as others have stated my first thought is referred pain. While the symptoms are those of a cracked tooth, the odds of cracking it that day are very remote. Referred pain is very common, works just like what you have. A tooth was hurting and now it isn’t but another one is. The fact the tooth with the decay was hurting leads me to believe it is the problem even though it doesn’t feel like it now.

Referred pain happens because there are really only two tooth nerves in your mouth. One is on the left and one on the right, top and bottom as well as each tooth are just branches of the same nerve. Referred pain is most common in the back teeth less common in the front. It seldom is more then a tooth or two away but can be several teeth away. It can go from top to bottom especially with wisdom teeth or second molars. In twenty eight years I’ve never seen it cross the midline due to the reasons stated above.

As for a periodontist saying the tooth just needs a filling I’d be leery. While they are dentists they deal the gums and supporting tissues not decay, pain, endodontics(root canals) and restorative work. The fact that he has a referral to someone who will just fill it also bothers me. Now, a painful tooth can sometimes be fixed with just a filling. This is more common if the pain comes with eating or drinking much less likely if it causes spontainious pain.

Also it is possible for a tooth to shift out of place and feel better when pushed back. Happens if there is infection. Could be enough to move the tooth but not enough to show up on x-ray.

You might try three(600mg) over the counter ibuprofen(Advil) every six hours and two acetaminophen(Tylenol) every six hours. Offset by three hours so that you are taking something every three hours v. every six hours. They also work different ways which may help. Heat also often helps. I know I am not your dentist, haven’t examined you etc.

11

Now, be honest–“stoic” is the nice way of saying “doormat,” right? :smiley: 'Cause I’ll totally cop to that being true.

Dr. A. did call me back (he’s a periodontist, I don’t remember if I mentioned this) and we spoke, with me being a complete idiot and giving him the wrong side of my mouth that hurt. Suddenly I turned dyslexic–I was holding my left cheek because of the pain, but telling him “Oh no, it’s my right side that has the problem!” Weird. I blame lack of sleep.

He agreed that it could be a crack, even though the x-ray that he was looking at showed no underlying problems. He mentioned that the nerve could be dead, which often brings pain–does that make sense? I thought having a dead nerve would mean no feeling at all? In fact he mentioned that as a test he’d put some ice on the tooth to see if I could feel it or not. Or does the pain come from the pulp or some other area? Maybe I just misunderstood him.

He asked if I felt as if my bite was “off,” and I said yes, because that was what I’ve been trying to explain here but not doing very well. It feels as if my tooth is suddenly in the way, even though it doesn’t look any different as far as I can see. Does that make sense? Dr. A. also agreed that all the x-ray stuff could’ve exacerbated it, as could my teeth-clenching when I sleep.

Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to come in or if I’d be okay waiting until tomorrow (which is when I have the appt. with Dr. M., the general dentist who was just originally going to examine the cavity and possibly fill it), and… well, yeah, I did say I could wait. It’s not agonizing anymore, and it was already 5, so… okay, I just wimped out. Or I’m stoic. That does sound better, I admit. Dr. A. said he’d be at my appointment with the general dentist just so we could all discuss what’s going on. Really a nice, responsive dentist. I definitely understand all the good Yelp reviews!

Dr. A. offered me painkillers but for now I figure I’ll deal with the lowish level pain and be extra careful until tomorrow. I’m really not keen to take more CNS-related medicines than I’m already on (Xanax and my antidepressant Nortriptyline). I’m even worried about the local anesthetic I’ll probably get tomorrow. I wish I hadn’t read the “Woman Dies When Dentist Extracts 20 Teeth” thread!

12

Forgot to add I agree with Dr. A saying try Act rinse.

If you read my comments in the 20 teeth thread, probably was sedation not extractions that were the problem but it can give one pause.

I’m always open to PM’s for dental stuff but cant promise quick response usually only on in early evening and may not notice the message indicator.

13

Ooh didn’t see this until after I edited my last post (#11) – thank you very much for responding, rsat3acr! (And on edit… and for the reassurance on the twenty extracted teeth thread, too!)

Interesting… hmm! Now I’m thoroughly confused. It reeeally feels like this 2nd molar is the problem, it’s so incredibly specific to touching it, so I was thinking perhaps I was just wrong in guessing where the pain was coming from before and wrongly assumed the cavity was the (pun not intended) root of the problem. But I trust your judgment, of course, and if it could be referred pain after all, that’d make sense (and means I have one less bad tooth in my mouth, which’d be great!).

I had no idea about there being only two nerves! I guess most dentists shortcut the explanations and say “the nerve” referring to the branch for that specific tooth, rather than the main nerve?

I’ve definitely only felt pain on one side of my face this whole time, and yeah, the cavity (and the possible Evil Tooth) are toward the back. The pain’s moved as far up as my upper cheek/ear when it was really bad, and lower toward my chin beneath the gum area. But my right side has none of these problems.

Right, when I first saw him on Saturday, the problem showed up primarily when drinking anything cold, or if I bit down particularly hard, or if I breathed in through my mouth (like during a yawn). In fairness to him, he didn’t so much just brush me off to the general dentist as say that she was more appropriate for my problem and would likely do a filling, since from what he could see the depth of the cavity didn’t seem to have reached a critical point. But he didn’t completely rule out the possibility that it was worse–what he was saying was that he wasn’t certain why the tooth was causing me that much pain as I was describing, when at least from his POV the x-rays didn’t indicate that bad a cavity.

In any event, considering my new problem (or possibly worsened one), before he called, he consulted w/the general dentist whom I’ll be seeing, and said we’ll have to do different tests to figure out which tooth–or both, if it’s a worst-case-scenario–is the pain-causer. And either way the cavity will likely be addressed.

Dr. A. also recommended the 600mg ibuprofen every six hours, but not the Tylenol/acetaminophen alternate, so I’ll give that a try. Heat has been helping, I noticed. Interesting that until yesterday it was ice that helped. Teeth is weird things.

Thank you very much for your insights, rsat3acr! I understand this is no diagnosis, and of course I’ve got at least two dentists of varying types that I’m seeing tomorrow who’ll hopefully identify/verify whatever’s happening in Toothland. But it’s good to hear from a dentist, and other people too, just because… I dunno, I just wanted some detective work so I won’t be thrown for a loop by the dentists telling me I have the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Tooth Necrotizing Disease.

14

Another thing and again no insult to Dr A, decay on a tooth is always more extensive that how it appears on the x-ray. So depending on how much restorative work he did before becoming a specialist he may not have a lot of experience judging decay.

15

Wow, more interesting details! I’ve always thought an x-ray would be pretty much as close as you could get to seeing the extent of decay (unless it was microscopic, I suppose), short of an MRI or something. But clearly not. Diagnosing the extent of these issues definitely seems like an art/skill that’s mighty demanding, considering how minute the sizes we’re talking here. Teeth are pretty small by themselves, much less getting to tiny cavities or cracks/fissures, the pulp and deeper areas. It ain’t like a broken leg.

Thank you again, everyone. I will report back for sure after tomorrow, whatever (gulp) happens. :slight_smile:

Edited to add–just out of curiosity, rsat3acr, if you happen to see this… would this (at least the unexpected and different level of pain I was feeling yesterday) have rated a call to the emergency line, if your office has one? I’ll ask the docs tomorrow their opinion, of course, I’m just wondering what you’d think.

16

Always call the emergency line. I am real good at rolling over and going back to sleep at 2AM after I talk to the patient. Would I see you at 2AM for this nope, but I’d talk to you.

17

Thanks, rsat3acr! As it happens I decided to call the emergency line last night, but just left a message rather than text them.

So, to follow up, I tried the Tylenol/Advil alternating plan and that really did help through Monday and Tuesday evening. In fact, I was actually a bit annoyed at how well it worked, only because it made it harder to prove just how bad the dang tooth hurt while my general dentist was testing the area! I suppose it’s silly to wish I were in more pain just to prove a point.

Anyway, so I had my general dentist appt. yesterday, but it wasn’t for a filling as it turns out, just a check-up and cleaning. I was a bit disappointed but I guess it’s proper to have a thorough cleaning before work is done? As it turns out, the dentist noted a few possible causes:

  • Evil Tooth actually does have a cavity, fairly small in diameter but it could be deeper than it appears. It might be affecting the nerve after all.

  • My wisdom tooth/back molar, which is the last tooth right behind Evil Tooth, is crowding the rest of the teeth fairly significantly. I was able to feel this quite easily when she was flossing using… God, I don’t know what dentists floss with, piano wire? That stuff ain’t the dainty silky nylon stuff I use. It was really tough for her to get the floss between the teeth on that side of the lower jaw.

  • My bite is apparently significantly ‘harder’ on that side of my mouth, particularly on the three back teeth. She confirmed this could be caused by grinding, exacerbated by any number of things including the x-ray plates I mentioned in my OP.

In other news, the total cavity count in my wretched mouth is five. Which is pretty embarrassing. There are three on the other side but very early stages, but obviously that’s the best time to deal with them. She won’t deal with that stuff for a couple of months, until all the issues on my left side are dealt with. I guess if I consider it, seven cavities total in 47 years isn’t awful, is it?

Anyway, the action plan is to give me a sedative filling (you were right, rsat2acr! :D) on either or both cavities on the left side (Evil Tooth and its enabling partner, Cavity Tooth). In addition, she recommended that she could relieve some of the pressure on the tooth by grinding away slightly at the Evil Tooth so it’s not quite as much in contact with the uppers. Since she promised no pain, I said sure, so she took care of that. The tooth definitely felt less “foreign” in my mouth afterward, although the pressure was still there.

The follow-up for the filling was her next available date, July 15. I wasn’t thrilled to wait that long but since I seemed to have the pain under control (HA! HUBRIS STRIKES AGAIN!) I said, sure.

Well, last night after brushing, flossing and using ACT Flouride wash on my sparkling clean teeth–which irritated me a little at first but I figured that was normal–I had twenty more minutes of complacency. Then at around 12:30am OH MY LORD. The pain was back and clearly pissed off at me for trying to abandon it. It’s apparently the Glenn Close/bunny boiler (“I won’t be ignored, Dan!”) of tooth pain. Nothing, but nothing, helped alleviate it, although putting an ice pack on my cheek helped a teensy bit if only distracting me from the other pain. But that didn’t work long.

This went on for four hours, and at long last at 4:30ish I was like, fuck this, I’m not waiting two weeks, they’ve got to push me up or do something! I was even willing to yield on the “no painkillers” policy, as unhappy as that would make me. So I called. By about 5am the pain finally began to subside. very fortunately someone happened to have cancelled their appointment w/my dentist for tomorrow at 11, thank God. I have a feeling she’d have seen me before or after hours anyway, but it’s good that the time is free. I don’t want to be an inconvenience.

In the meantime the pain is currently quite distant, more of a hangover/remnant of pain, and touching the tooth isn’t as raw as before. I’m afraid of what’ll happen tonight, though.

I guess my last question is: the painful episode echoes what happened on Saturday night, and the only thing similar to both evenings was my use of ACT. (I didn’t use it on Sunday or Monday.) Is it at all possible that using a mouthwash/fluoride rinse could be triggering something? I have to swish it “vigorously for a full minute,” and it strikes me that if anything is seeping into the Evil Tooth (or regular Cavity Tooth) to irritate a nerve, it’d be the ACT. Although… those things have alcohol in them, surely? Isn’t alcohol supposed to be numbing? So maybe the theory makes no sense.

Well, that’s where the Choie Dental Saga du jour stands at the moment. We’ll see what transpires tonight (I’ll tell you one thing, I ain’t using ACT again until this stuff is sealed up!) and hopefully, hopefully, tomorrow the cavity-filling or root canal or whatever the hell the dentist has to do will fix this shit up, because I don’t think I can take much more of this without resorting to asking for painkillers, a prospect that I am deeply, deeply afraid of.

Oh, btw, one nice thing was that this dentist was also incredibly kind about my anxiety issues and made certain to check in with me at all times even though I really don’t have any particular dentist phobias. But I guess dentists are used to people being afraid of them. Another plus: I got a goodie bag to take home, with a new brush (though I don’t need one as I’m using electric these days), floss, Listerine, lip balm, and some other stuff I forget. They also gave me some water on my way out (it was a hot day) and it came in a box! Like milk does. I’ve never seen that before.

Whew. Sorry for the logorrhea. I think I’m typing so much because I’m doing almost no talking for the past few days due to the fear of hitting my teeth against each other. Thanks to anyone who’s read this far!

18

Wow, tough night! Glad it is doing better. Probably wasn’t the ACT, the alcohol doesn’t really numb in the case of mouthwashes. It is more of a disinfectant. Seems like you are in good hands. Two weeks until the next appointment, wish we were booked solid for two weeks out. Actually we leave time in the schedule for emergencies due to our demographics. Do lots of extractions and root canals on walk in patients.

19

Huh, interesting. I had a root canaled/crowned tooth give up the ghost Tuesday evening (I’m in no pain, at all). It’s much like the previous experience that led to an implant - in the tooth next to it, fwiw. I called my dentist’s office. While he’s on vacation, they went ahead and told me to call the oral surgeon they refer to. And that group can’t get me in until July 17 - and that just for a consultation.

Granted, I’ve been clear that I’m not hurting, but it just seemed like a while to wait for an evaluation. I mean, I’ll deal with it because I have to - if they can’t get me in before then, there’s nothing I can do. Plus it gives me a couple of weeks to think about how to pay for this.

20

That’s an awesome policy, rsat3acr. (BTW I can never memorize your screenname! I have a mental block with it for some reason. :)) It’s good to know people have someone to depend on in an emergency if possible. As far as the 2-weeks booked stuff, there are approximately 240 million teeth in the naked city (accounting for people with fewer than 32, such as kids, old folks, athletes and meth users). So if a dental practice has as good a rep as this place, it’s gonna be hopping. And yet amazingly there’s never been a wait in my three visits this week. Pretty efficient place.

Sooooooooo today was the Big Day. My first-ever filling. (Previous two cavities were already at the root canal stage.) Almost completely painless during, and I’d say even the “pain” was mostly just sensitivity from the vibrating, um, drill, I guess? The reason I hesitate in naming it is that I don’t know if it was a regular drill, it was really rough-sounding, heavy tool. The drill she used most often was much less noticeable and high-pitched.

The bad news is that my dentist discovered that the hairline fracture she spotted earlier went down below the gum line, and though she cleaned out all the decay and tried to remove as much of the crack as possible, she stopped when she saw how far down the fracture went, for fear of splitting the tooth entirely.

In the meantime she decided to give me a permanent filling in hopes that this would solve the problem. But she said it’s possible it wouldn’t, and if that’s the case, the tooth may not be salvageable, alas. She gave me her cell number and told me to call/text her over the weekend if I had any problems, and if she didn’t hear from me she’ll get in touch on Monday to see how things are going. I do know that even if this works–crossing my fingers–I will need a follow-up for her to adjust the shape of the tooth a bit–one of the four ‘bumps’ on top of the tooth, whatever they’re called, feels sharp rather than rounded, to the level that I keep scraping my tongue over it.

Finally, I’m supposed to keep up the Advil/Tylenol regime for a couple of days since she expected that once the anesthetic wore off there’d be some pain/sensitivity (and, three hours later, I can confirm that!), and I have a new bottle of Tylenol w/Codeine to take at bedtime. That should be interesting since I’ve never had codeine before. I know I’m against painkillers, but I don’t mind taking one only at night if it’ll just make me sleepy along with easing the pain.

(It is normal to feel pretty sore after a cavity filling, right? It’s hard to judge what’s the same ol’ pain vs. what’s normal aftershocks from dental work.)

All in all I’m not exactly in the best pain-free situation for the holiday weekend, but I sure am hoping the filling does the job. Extraction and then a whole new tooth are both expensive and, I would assume, way bigger deals than either a mere filling or even a root canal.

Thanks so much to all for the encouragement and information, guys. I’ll add an update after things cool down in Toothville to let y’all know whether the Evil Tooth has reformed to become a Happy Tooth. As both a reader and writer, I do love a good redemption story! (Although I should say that there’s already been at least one redemption story: my own, as a much-better tooth owner. I’m a reformed character for sure.)