Wednesday, November 09, 2011

That Bites

Tuesday morning I woke up with swollen and painful gums in one area of my mouth.  At first I thought that I must have chipped off a part of my tooth grinding my teeth in my sleep, because when I ran my tongue over the area I felt entirely too much gum and not enough tooth.  When I examined my teeth in the mirror using the tiny mirror in a blush compact to see into my mouth, I saw that my gums were swollen up around the edge of one tooth.  This came out, seemingly out of nowhere with no real pain before hand.  Surprise!

So, of course, the first thing I did was call the dentist and beg them to fit me in to get it checked out.  The dentist office was very accommodating and got me in right away.  (I love them!)  So I rushed off to my appointment and was examined, x-rayed, poked and prodded.

Quick back story: when I first starting seeing this dentist (which was in 2002, as they reminded me of today) my dentist picked on me and giggled (a very manly, but Chinese, giggle) over the fact that I have two baby teeth left in my mouth.  He has been endlessly amused by this all these years.  No adult teeth ever came through in those positions so they never fell out.  Simple story, but apparently in dentist it is a comedy.  I actually have a filling in one of them already in our attempt to reserve them so I don't have to get a bridge or implants, or have a gap because I can't afford a bridge or implants. So yeah, I am the freak with the baby teeth.

So back to my gums, my dentist comes in and explains to me in his broken English that there is an infection around the baby tooth.  My body is trying to expel my youth the baby tooth that does not belong!

So we are going to try a course of antibiotics to see if we can push out the infection and have things go back to good for a while.  Thankfully my dentist isn't into doing dental work that isn't necessary so he is all on board with trying to save my little tooth, probably so he can giggle about it some more.  (Again, I love my dentist, even with the making fun of my baby teeth!)

Sadly, if the antibiotics don't take care of the problem the next step is to remove the baby tooth (and I will have to change my name to Mindy Sue and learn to play and banjo.)

So that is where I am: please send good thoughts to my youth baby tooth.  My body might not want it, but I do!
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2 comments:

  1. Call Me CateNovember 09, 2011 9:04 AM

    C'mon, baby tooth! Stay where you are loved! Don't leave that warm home and go out into the scary world without your teeth-buddies!

    Though, I do find our bodies fascinating, the way they try to self-correct. Even when we don't want them to, even when they should've done this particular thing years ago.

    I do hope the pain subsides soon. Are the baby teeth somewhere noticeable I'm guessing? I busted out a front upper when I was younger and the dentist at the time did a lousy job fixing it. For years, I looked a bit like a freak. My current dentist did a proper crown, which cost a bazillion dollars, but I felt so much better about myself afterwards!

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  2. C. BethNovember 11, 2011 9:33 PM

    Oh man, I hope you're doing better now and that the antibiotics worked!!

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