I wanted enough time to get a chance to eat something because I didn't think I'd want to eat later, and I was right about that.
The plan was for me to get a broken cap replaced, and get a new cap for a badly damaged tooth. Since the teeth were next to each other, and they weren't sure how well the new cap would do because the tooth was so badly damaged, the plan was to get one cap of two teeth stuck together (no space to floss in between).
Things started off pretty well. They gave me the Novocaine and then did an impression of all my teeth. When I got the cap that's now broken, it took something like ten to twenty minutes to do the impression, but this time they did it in under a minute. I thought this was real progress, but it has it's down side.
The next step was to remove the broken cap, which was almost like trying to remove a real tooth. It took a lot of drilling to weaken the cap, and then a lot of force. There was very real violence involved!
Then we moved on to cutting down the other tooth that had already broken and been repaired and then had a bad cavity added to the mix. That went pretty smoothly.
Then we came to the part that was a real problem for me, which was taking an impression of the base of the two teeth that we planned to make new caps for.
They took the impression. But they weren't happy with it, so they added more of the impression material and did it again. And again. And again. And again.
The problem with this is that they were just adding more material to the original impression, coupled with the fact that the impression material seems to shrink a bit as it cures. I'm sure that it doesn't really shrink a lot, but it was enough, since this was an impression of all my teeth, including the back ones that each time he redid it, it was harder to get it back on. Each time they redid it, he had to use more muscle to get it back on. And once it was on, it felt like it was bending all the bones in my face and head. It hurt! It really hurt!
After the third or fourth time they did it, it pulled the cap off my other front tooth. The dentist tried to replace it, but broke it in the process. So, they had to do an impression of the base of that tooth, too.
So, I'm left with the fading taste/smell of: rubber gloves, the impression material, Novocaine, burned teeth (from the drilling), blood and other assorted dental tastes/smells. I thought some of it might be on my hands or face, but no amount of washing/brushing would get rid of it last night. It's starting to fade today. Plus, there are still small pieces of the impression material that I'm fishing out of my mouth and trying to scrape off the inside of my upper lip, etc, and the skin on the inside of my lip seems to be blistered and is partly peeling off.
My whole head, and especially my face, hurt last night from the distortion that was imposed by the impression material. There was and still is a sharp pain in my nose for no reason I can think of unless there was a hairline crack in the area between my front teeth and nose. The whole area that had Novocaine in it still hurts, as it always does for a few days after something like this. The temporary caps are probably a tiny fraction of an inch larger than the previous caps/tooth, so they're pressing against the teeth in both directions, which hurts a bit. And, of course, they had to drill my tooth below the gumline, so the gum is all torn up, and the whole general area has swollen. None of this is major pain, but it's enough to make me feel yucky. I know from past experience that it will be worth it, though.
So, I have temporary caps on three of my front teeth, and instructions not to bite into anything "unless you want your teeth to be all chippy before we can replace them."
In three weeks, I'll go back and they'll remove the temporary caps, fill a cavity next to one of the caps, give me the finished caps, and I'll have time for it all to heal before Thanksgiving!
I had three caps put in almost thirty years ago, and I do know that all this hassle/pain will be worth it. Once it's done, it'll be almost like having my own, real teeth. I can hardly wait!
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Holly and Robin are on their Halloween vacation already. Unless they met with delays at the airport, they should be in New Orleans by now.
Holly called me last night. She's angry at K-Mart. She ordered a camera from them with expedited shipping. They guaranteed absolutely that she would have the camera delivered yesterday. As of yesterday, they hadn't even shipped it! She swears that she will never buy anything from K-Mart ever again! I don't really blame her. So, now she has to spend part of her vacation looking for a nice camera to buy. You would think that in this economy, a store like K-Mart wouldn't want to blow a sale.
So, for any of you planning your Christmas shopping, keep this in mind.
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Eastwick will be on again tonight! I can't wait! The electronic TV Guide on my DVR says that they plan to burn a witch for Halloween! I sincerely hope they plan to do it in effigy! Whatever, it should be good!
I really hope you got to see the Halloween episode of Castle on Monday! It was too much fun!
Have a great evening!
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Addition:
I nearly forgot!
Trick or Treat!
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