In honor of Halloween...
Oct. 31st, 2006 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanju...the harrowing tale of my dental appointment this morning.
Hah hah. Fooled you. It wasn't harrowing at all. It was a great relief.
For the last month or more, every time I put my teeth together, one of my lower incisors was bashing into the gum behind it's upper alternate number. Which bruises the gum and inflames it, which only makes the problem worse. It's an "evil circle" as my dentist put it. I think she meant "vicious cycle" but I suspect English is not her first language.
Anyhow, I saw another dentist (the guy who handles urgent appointments, I think--I got in to see him within a day or so of calling) a couple of weeks ago and he suggested a couple of possible fixes--wearing a nightguard when I slept, along with salt water rinses to try to reduce the swelling. Those seemed to help for a while, but then it quickly became a pain again. He'd also set me up with a follow-up appointment with my regular dentist.
At that appointment this morning, she filed down the offending tooth slightly and polished it. (The only other alternative was "heroic" treatment--i.e., send me to an othrodontist, which we bought thought was a bit extreme just yet.)
The result was immediate. When I bite down now, the tooth in question does not any longer chomp on my tender gum. Yay! I hadn't realized how much it was bothering me until I practically floated out of the dentist's office. It was never more than a mild discomfort, but it was inescapable--especially when I ate, which as you may know, is something we humans tend to do fairly frequently.
I fully agree with the illustrious Cohen the Barbarian, who--when asked "What is best in life?" replied, "Soft toilet paper and modern dentistry!"
Hah hah. Fooled you. It wasn't harrowing at all. It was a great relief.
For the last month or more, every time I put my teeth together, one of my lower incisors was bashing into the gum behind it's upper alternate number. Which bruises the gum and inflames it, which only makes the problem worse. It's an "evil circle" as my dentist put it. I think she meant "vicious cycle" but I suspect English is not her first language.
Anyhow, I saw another dentist (the guy who handles urgent appointments, I think--I got in to see him within a day or so of calling) a couple of weeks ago and he suggested a couple of possible fixes--wearing a nightguard when I slept, along with salt water rinses to try to reduce the swelling. Those seemed to help for a while, but then it quickly became a pain again. He'd also set me up with a follow-up appointment with my regular dentist.
At that appointment this morning, she filed down the offending tooth slightly and polished it. (The only other alternative was "heroic" treatment--i.e., send me to an othrodontist, which we bought thought was a bit extreme just yet.)
The result was immediate. When I bite down now, the tooth in question does not any longer chomp on my tender gum. Yay! I hadn't realized how much it was bothering me until I practically floated out of the dentist's office. It was never more than a mild discomfort, but it was inescapable--especially when I ate, which as you may know, is something we humans tend to do fairly frequently.
I fully agree with the illustrious Cohen the Barbarian, who--when asked "What is best in life?" replied, "Soft toilet paper and modern dentistry!"
