2 Down! 1 to Go!
I got my second permanent crown placed last week. It was quite an ordeal. It should take an hour, but it took about 90 minutes. The main thing is that I had my teeth yanked out last year in one efficient surgery. I couldn’t afford to put in all the implants at once, so I waited a year to add in two. These two are in the very back of my mouth and one toward the front, under my nose.
The one in the rear was being done first and the dentist had advised me that my upper tooth would grow downwards into the empty spot where my lower molar had been removed. Sure enough, my dentist was trying to put in my permanent crown when he encountered a small issue. I couldn’t close my teeth. Now, this is to expected somewhat since the crown has to be ground down to fit your bite. However, my porcelain over gold crown was being ground down to the metal under the porcelain! I wasn’t going to have much of a crown left!
What’s does the dentist do? He tells me to scooch down the chair and open wide. He’s going to ground down my upper tooth!
5 minutes later, I’m able to close my mouth completely, but it still feels funny. It does not feel nearly as good as my first implant. I am going to probably have to have it adjusted, i.e. grind down the upper tooth some more. I’m not very pleased with this, but he did warn me about this being a problem. Now I am worried that my last implant will involve the same issue. The final implant is under my nose and it takes about 4-6 months to heal because it’s so close to the nasal cavity. I should be able to get the last one put in in a few more weeks.
I just hope to god the dental insurance covers the implants, because they are being all weird about it and denying coverage on some stuff. I am all out of Medical FSA funds for the year, so no more getting sick for me. All of my stuff is out of pocket from now on. Expensive for the teeth, but what’s done is done.
But at least it was a free visit and I got to talk to the dental assistant about her love life. Gotta live vicariously through young, attractive people since I’m apparently, literally, a little long in the tooth.
plonkee wrote:
Ow that all sounds painful and expensive. I thought my two root canals plus crowns were pretty bad, but implants sound much worse.
Posted on 23-Aug-07 at 2:25 pm | Permalink
mapgirl wrote:
Plonkee - Actually none of it was very painful. The most painful thing was the pain that drove me to finally suck up the financial burden and fix it all. I was popping Tylenol like candy. It was truly awful.
Sitting in the dentist’s chair to have the work done is not painful at all. Implants require full anesthesia and I didn’t need any of my prescription painkillers afterwards. Comments like yours are what make people afraid to see someone who can help them with their smiles! Truth is, it’s not very painful at all.
Posted on 24-Aug-07 at 7:34 am | Permalink
dimes wrote:
This is why it’s so important to get teeth issues fixed as soon as possible. Evidently the mouth doesn’t like gaps and stuff gets all scooched around to fill in the holes. Hopefully he didn’t grind the upper tooth down so far that it is going to need to be capped or crowned later on! I guess it’s easy to see why dentists have the lowest unemployment rates of about any professional.
Posted on 25-Aug-07 at 2:30 pm | Permalink
SavingDiva wrote:
I also had a few crowns replaced at the beginning of 2007…my FSA funds were totally tapped out. Luckily, I didn’t have to have implants (this time around). Good luck with your last crown!
Posted on 27-Aug-07 at 2:59 pm | Permalink