Dental Mess

Nothing like a bunch of unexpected extra puzzle pieces that have to be dropped into place. Monday, my dentist called. "I can't give you dental clearance till you get the root tips on the upper right taken out - you've got abcesses," he said. Ugh. NOW he tells me. So, I called the oral surgeon he recommended, who managed to squeeze me in the next morning at 8 am. I had a houseguest, so I told him to sleep in while I scooted off to root removal land.

First thing his office did, after doing all the intake paperwork, was plonk me inside a panarex - at least I think it's called that. Takes panoramic xrays. I stood there, biting down on a bit of plastic, while the xray machine whished its way around me in a circle. Felt like preparations for NASA or something.

Then, into the examining room. Again, no spit sink. Must be a Chicago thing. The oral surgeon said I had abcesses at the roots of THREE teeth, and I'd better hie over to my dentist and find out what in the bleep is going on, as he only was recommending one set of root tips be nabbed. So, they made me a print of the xray, which I trotted over to my dentist's office. He took a look, and said, yeah, you need three out. Turns out I've had the abcesses for over two years, but because no big surgery was forthcoming, there was no need to deal with them. Ugh and double ugh.

So ... back to the oral surgeon. And out came root tips for three back teeth - my pathetic excuse for a wisdom tooth, and the two top second molars. My mouth is tiny anyway, so I think I can do without them, but boy, it feels weird. The oral surgeon also said one abcess had moved into my sinuses, which explains the weird filled feeling I've had on one side of my head, and probably explains the leakage in my ear I was having earlier this year. I suspect all will improve, with the extractions and the antibiotic.

I spent most of yesterday with, of all things, tea bags in my mouth. Tannic acid is known to stanch bleeding (not staunch - that misusage drives me bonkers), so as the bleeding hadn't stopped after 2 hours, in went the tea bags. I think I was sounding like Marlon Brando in The Godfather, trying to talk around those things. My houseguest said I looked like a chipmunk. I'm glad he didn't try to take any pictures!