The problem is that I don't have enough room in my mouth for all of my teeth. The fact that I have to buy a child sized mouth guard should have been a clue...
Nevertheless, I have too much tooth and not enough mouth. The result of this is that my back molars on my bottom jaw never fully emerged from my gum tissue. Said gum tissue is covering the back part of said teeth, making it nearly impossible to clean those teeth. A plaque trap is what the dentist called it.
So the gum tissue is pressing against my tooth, trapping plaque and causing decay. The more decay it causes, the more the gum works its way into my tooth structure, causing more decay, causing my gum to work its way deeper into the tooth, causing more decay....and so on.
The dentist wants me to do a root canal and have crowns put on. Naturally.
But I say that if there isn't enough room in my mouth, wouldn't it make more sense to pull the teeth out? It has gotten to the point that something has to be done. The molar on my right side is very nearly split in two. It hurts, but my primary concern is that it may affect the tooth next to it. I want to get it pulled before it starts messing up that one.
I called the dentist today and discussed it with him. He was reading the note he had written in my chart: Mumbling "we were going to send you to an oral surgeon and while you are sedated have all four teeth cut out."
Four???? What four????
Oh, the other two would be your wisdom teeth. They've never come out, but they're there and we might as well have them out at the same time.
But my wisdom teeth aren't bothering me. I don't want to pull them if they aren't bothering me.
Well, when you get these other two teeth pulled, they might come on out and they may be fine, or they may cause problems later.
Well, then we'll deal with that later. Right now, I just want the one that is hurting pulled. The others aren't hurting me, so I want to keep them as long as I can.
Just to summarize the rest of the conversation, he referred me to another dentist in town for a consultation and said that if it is something he feels comfortable with, he will pull my tooth. I'm wondering why he wouldn't feel comfortable pulling a tooth. I'm also wondering why my regular dentist couldn't pull it. My only thought is that he is not set up for the kind of sedation usually needed for something big like a tooth extraction.
I have an appointment for next Monday. It's the soonest they could get me in without me having to miss work. I'm trying to miss as little as possible, and I'll most likely take the whole day when I get it pulled.
But if it starts hurting too bad, I'm going to call them back and change it.
3 comments:
My husband has had this sort of experience as well. He has finally found a dentist that is comfortable doing what is *necessary* vs. what is *ideal* from a dentistry standpoint. Plus this dentist will explain the reasoning behind her opinions in an understandable way, lay out the options, the pros and cons of each and, *shockingly*, allow Gator to make the final decision about what will be done. Amazing, truly. It has taken years to find this dentist, but it has been soooo worth it. I hope you can find a similar situation. Good luck!!!
I have a friend, Sus, who will ONLY go to female dentists. This has been his policy for years and years (he moves around quite a lot). When I asked him "why?" he said the primary reason is they are gentler, by far, than the males, and also MUCH less arrogant.
Works for him.
Becky...sounds like your regular dentist is "making the perfect the enemy of the good." Not a good thing, in a doctor of any stripe.
It was really my call. He explained the options, and I made the decision. Since I decided to have the teeth pulled, I wanted to keep them as long as I could get away with it.
Post a Comment