Musings on a Small Life

That post title is a take off on a very old (Anglican) hymn, the first line of which is "Crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne...." (I don't recall more than that.) I had my second permanent crown done this morning (the first a number of years ago). The dentist had done the temporary crown two weeks ago. Once again, it was fun times in the chair...not...as she kept giving me more freezing throughout the process. Apparently not only am I very difficult to freeze, my teeth (or lower molar, in this case) are super-sensitive. Yay me! No further details needed. Let me just say, for the record, that I'd prefer NOT to be crowed, ever again! More fun for me was watching my two tabby boys enjoying yesterday's sunshine. (Click to enlarge for best viewing.) My Smoochy Boy (Derry) and my Purr Bug (Nicki).  I hope everyone is having a great day with plenty of sunshine and no crowns, at least not of the dental variety. :-) Peace.

I feel like I'm drooling. I had a dental appointment this morning -- part of my lower right molar broke over the Family Day weekend, so I needed a new filling. Took five needles to freeze me; fun times. She removed the old silver filling done around 1980, put a pin in at the corner that was broken (so the new filling wouldn't break off there too), then filled the tooth. There's another crack in the molar, though, so it will need a crown. X-ray taken, documents sent off to my insurance company for assessment, so we'll see how much they cover. (It's only partial coverage for crowns.) However, while I was waiting for my appointment (she was running 20+ minutes late), an elderly gentleman came in to have some broken lower teeth removed and new ones (implants? partial?) put in. He was insistent about paying upfront, in case he didn't make it out. Seriously. He came and sat beside me and we chatted while we were both waiting. Eighty-eight years old. He came to...

...if anything has changed in the past three months ( yes , I go every three months), do NOT mention the sore crown tooth (a bottom right molar), presumably caused by clenching your teeth together too tightly, too often (bad habit of mine). Mentioning something innocuous like this could entail x-rays (along with the regular x-rays taken every couple of years). And this could entail discovery that the crown tooth is abscessed and that you should start taking antibiotics today . Oh yeah, and that the tooth needs a root canal, and possibly a new crown too (if the porcelain chips, which it likely will). So when you go for your regular cleaning, just say all is fine and leave it at that!  :-O BTW: All the times I wondered if I'd rather have a root canal or be at the office? And I couldn't decide? I'd rather be at the office. Peace .

7:30AM, back in the dentist's chair for two needles. Because I just don't freeze on one. Lucky me. Forty-five minutes later I was done, the new crown on, hopefully permanently. Because I really don't want to go through that again. Tomorrow it's the ortho wire at 7:20AM. Let's hope that this time the lab did it correctly. Otherwise I'll have to go back yet again, and frankly, as nice as my dentist is, I've seen enough of her lately.

...I have a temp crown. Go back in two weeks for the permanent one. LOTS of drilling involved. Two needles wasn't fun, but at least this time she did NOT hit the nerve. Thank you, goddess. Unfortunately, in the process of doing the impression, we pulled off my ortho wire, the one that holds my upper front teeth together (behind the teeth). Have to go back Wednesday AM to get the bonding at the back of the teeth cleaned up and get an impression made for another wire. That wire had been on for about 25 years, so likely was ready to go. We had talked about my having this done, way back in January, and the dental office had submitted an estimate to my insurance company. About $500, of which either 35% or 50% should be covered. The letter was VERY confusing, even the dentist couldn't sort it out. So I decided not to have it done, because of the money factor. Well...Now it HAS to be done. Thanks, Mr. Murphy of Murphy's Law. So much for getting out of debt, huh? And even before th...