Welcome to family, friends and visitors. Here you will find interesting (hopefully) pictures of my part of the world, news of our household and probably, long ramblings about anything that catches my interest.

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

Dentist Torture.

Today was the day of my visit to the dentist to have the crowns which I have been waiting 4 weeks for, fitted on the stumps which had been left in my mouth after the old crowns had been removed. (My gums have receded a little and left sensitive edges at the bases of these 2 crowns.) The dentist had warned me that I might have some sensitivity on those uncapped stumps but they haven't been too bad until Sunday. It was then that I made the grave error of eating a grapefruit. The fruit acid burned right through to an/some exposed nerve endings and my whole mouth went into toothache overload. I must have worked my way through every kind of painkiller in the house. It was not nice.On Monday my whole mouth was still super sensitive with even my jaw bones sore on one side. By yesterday it had toned down a bit but was still very sensitive. I told my tale of woe to the dentist today and he suggested that I would need pain killing injections on both sides as he would probably need to do some drilling and other work to make sure the crowns fitted properly. No big problem as I don't mind injections though I go into panic mode over drilling. The first 2 injections in the more sensitive side were ok, the first one on the other side was ok but the second one wasn't. At first there was simply that odd sensation that you get with injections and then all of a sudden it felt as if I had been stabbed in the mouth. I winced and tried to sink further into the chair. I think the injection must have gone in the wrong place, (or maybe I have a funny nerve layout), because when he started working on that side my mouth wasn't properly numb. Much pain and whimpering from me as even the air thingy was killing my tooth and the drilling !!!!! so the dentist gave me 2 more injections on that side. He finally got the crowns fitted but I have to say it was all fairly painful. He has only put the crown on the side that had originally been so painful in with a temporary cement because he wants to check that there is not an underlying problem before he uses the permanent cement. So my poor mouth was completely numbed up and I had to go into work. Teaching phonics was a bit of a laugh as I was so worried about biting my tongue or the inside of my mouth that I kept my back teeth clamped together when I spoke. Much laughter in the staffroom, the meanies. Luckily the 4 year olds managed to understand me as I mumbled and dribbled my way through the afternoon. Only one good thing came out of the dentist visit. I have a filling in the back of one of my front teeth done in the days when the NHS would only let you have metal fillings. It shows through my tooth and doesn't look too good so I asked how much it would cost to have it replaced with the white stuff. Nowadays for a filling in such an obvious place even the NHS lets you have white fillings so I can have have it done in white on the NHS which will be considerably cheaper. I'm having it done when I go back to have the crown fixed on permanently. The cost of the 2 crowns and treatment was £200 compared to nearly £1000 at a private dentist (who probably wouldn't have tortured me).
Quite an interesting sky on the way home tonight. The whole day has been a bit overcast but dry and I put in an hour in the garden before going to the dentist and another hour when I got home. Little by little the work is getting done.

2 comments:

Catching the Magic said...

ouchie!!!!!!!

Nedine Says said...

I would hate to tell you how much that would have cost here in the US where most of us don't have dental insurance. YIKES !