get my tooth fixed

I actually got the bridge installed about 2 months ago, & I think it looks really good. And I’m extremely glad to not have to be messing with that damn removable temporary tooth anymore! However, I left the goal uncompleted for two reasons.

First, after two years with that temporary tooth, it took a while to get used to the bridge. The two front teeth now are larger than the crown and temporary (to cover up a gap that was naturally between my upper and lower teeth). Although I can’t really tell the difference most of the time, when I bite into things my teeth meet and scrape together. It took a while to get used to that and to slightly change the way that I bite down to avoid it most of the time.

Second, there was still the pain associated with paying for the bridge! The receptionist estimated that it would be over $1100 after insurance. That’s more than double what I expected to be paying out of my pocket. But luckily, when the insurance payment came through it turned out that my out-of-pocket cost was “only” $880. Still significantly more than I expected to pay, but at least I had enough in my medical flex account this year to cover it. I made the final payment a couple weeks ago.

So, finally, nearly 3 years after adding this goal and almost 7 years after my bike crash, I’m marking this goal as completed!

I went for my long (1.5 hour!) appointment to get my teeth ready for the bridge.

The dentist had to take off the one crown that was good (something that I had tried desperately to avoid with the implant, which unfortunately didn’t work) and made an impression for the permanent bridge. She ground down one of the good teeth that had rotated because of the gap that remained after I lost the one crown about two and a half years ago. Then she made a temporary bridge to use until the permanent bridge can be made and attached, which is scheduled to be done in early July.

It looks like I may finally be getting close to marking this goal as completed (although there’s still some question about whether the rotated tooth that she had to grind down will need to have a root canal- cross your fingers that that won’t be necessary!).

The good news for now is that I’m finally done with that removeable “flipper” that I’ve had to use for over 2.5 years- does anyone need an unopened small tube of denture adhesive that I won’t need now? ;)

and came out with THREE appointments (good thing the new dentist is kinda cute like my coworkers have mentioned ;) ).

One for my regular cleaning in 6 months.

And two, in June and July, for getting the permanent bridge put it! Yay!

A couple of possible complications, though…

For one, like many people, I hope that I’m still at my job (with insurance!) in 2 months.

And she also said that one of my good teeth, next to the missing one, has twisted so far that she’s going to have to grind it down to make it look right- and if the grinding gets too deep, I’ll need another root canal. Sigh…

Keeping my fingers crossed…

They made another appointment for me but I missed it. I have to call them back tomorrow. I have two more teeth that have problems now. Sick of dental work>< Being touched out from breastfeeding is making it really hard. The dental technician brushed up against my neck and I jumped. Not something you want to do when there’s a drill in your mouth.

I’ve been playing phone tag with the office for the last few weeks. The new dentist who is taking over the practice wants to take a look herself. But I’m still trying to get an appointment set up.

Obviously, this still isn’t going to get completed this year! :(

I went to get the permanent crown and the tooth broke off while they were taking the temporary one off. GAHH!!! I get to go back to the dental surgeon that did my crown lengthening and see what he thinks.

under this goal.

I was wondering why it was taking so long to hear back from my dentist about the bridge- it’s been a month and a half since he took the last impression.

Well, a few days ago I got a letter from him that he’s closing his practice!

His letter just cited health reasons, but a co-worker who’s been going to him for years said he’s had at least one bout with cancer.

That’s too bad, he was a very good dentist. And I’m not sure where that leaves me in the process. I need to call the office & see what they have to say there.

I got my temporary crown today. It looks like a real tooth now. I get my permanent crown in 2 weeks.

My appointment to get the crown is Nov. 6, 2 days after my birthday.

early last week. I got another impression made of my teeth (the 4th one since this started, I think!) and he told me about some options for a removeable bridge. He said he wants to send it to the lab and see what they recommend before we procede.