A First For Me

I've managed to live for almost 62 years without having to have any of my teeth pulled and I was hoping to continue that record for many years to come. Unfortunately, in Feb. of this year I began to have some problems with one of my upper molars. I had a couple of visits to my dentist in which he tried to adjust my bite by filing the tooth down but when that didn't work he sent me to a specialist that just does root canals. He did a root canal and I must say that it was no worse than getting a cavity filled (as far as the physical aspect) but it did hurt in the pocket book cause the cost was $1,065. Ouch!!

Of course, I was hoping that the root canal would take care of my problem but after a few weeks the tooth felt the same and the specialist decided he would re-do the root canal.... ugh!! No additional cost but no fun having another root canal either. We were all hoping that this would finally do the trick and I could save the tooth. He told me that if this didn't work then the tooth was probably cracked and would have to be removed.

I waited at least another couple of weeks ..... but...... you guessed it......it was no better so ..... IT HAD TO COME OUT.

So I had my first tooth pulled last week and although I was dreading it because I didn't know what to expect, it went quite smoothly with no problems whatsoever. Of course the two or three days after the extraction I felt like a mule had kicked me in the jaw.

Now I have to wait for 3 months and let the area heal completely before getting some bridgework done..... another $3,500 (more pain in the pocketbook). Oh, BTW, when my dentist got the tooth out he said he couldn't see any cracks. He said there could still be a crack that you couldn't see with the naked eye but that sure got me to thinking.... I hope I didn't get a tooth pulled for nothing. Oh well, it's done now but a word to the wise, "Take care of your teeth."