The other side of the fence (so to speak)

I'm currently 4 days post-op from oral surgery. If you know me, you know that I've had my fair share of dental woes in my life. A few root canals, caps, crowns, fillings, you name it. Ever since the beginning of July, I started having some nagging pain where my crown was (9th tooth). Went to my dentist, did some x-rays, saw nothing, said I probably just bumped it or chewed a little too hard. Gave me some antibiotic mouthwash sent me on my way. A few weeks pass, pain is a little better but still there. Starting to become quite irritating and troublesome. Went in for my regular cleaning, mentioned the pain was still there, the director of my dentist's office was a little less than helpful after looking at my x-rays. Rambled on about how the crown, the root canal or both will fail inevitably but since there wasn't anything wrong that nothing needed to be done, just keep an eye on it. Me being the nurse that I am, I don't take no for an answer. I know my body; trust me, I know when something isn't right. So I did what any reasonable person may do; sought a second opinion.

Went to another local dentist and again, she saw nothing wrong but by then the pain was starting to get worse and I ended up having to leave my second job just to get in to be seen. I could barely function at this point. She booked me in to see a specialist at that office...but it was over 2 weeks away, and I could NOT wait that long. So I went to another office, unbeknowing to me it was an oral surgeon instead of a periodontist (the type of specialist she wanted me to see). One thing led to another and just as the oral surgeon was about to I guess take my tooth out (which I thought crown), I call my original dentist's office to see if they could give me a temporary something to put over the inevitable big gaping hole that would be in my mouth. I guess my dentist got wind of it and asked me to come in before anything happened. So I drove clear across town (my mouth was already numbed) to my dentist's office. I go in and she asks me what happened...and I made a fool of myself because I was frustrated and in pain and basically said I was tired of getting the run around and something needed to happen because I was MISERABLE!!!! So...something did happen.

Almost 2 weeks ago I ended up in Cambridge to see a periodontist who said the original tooth around my crown was either cracked or infected. At that time I was on prophylactic Augmentin just in case there was an infection. One way or another, needed to come out and an implant would need to go in. I remember my dad and my brother undergoing the same thing and how lengthy the process was. Not looking forward to it, but needed to happen. It was only a matter of time really. So this past Wednesday I went in for my implant surgery, and...it wasn't as terrible as I anticipated it would be. I didn't feel a thing, granted I was under the influence of novocaine and laughing gas....and apparently was saying all kinds of silly things. But the verdict was that the original tooth around the crown was terribly infected, so much so that a cyst around the gum was starting to form and the root canal wasn't too happy either. So...moral of the story, listen to your body. That was 4 days ago and minus the relenting nausea from the antibiotics I'm in relatively little pain. Wednesday was bad, Thursday was a little better, Friday was even better and yesterday was even better than Friday. Today I've not needed anything for pain, not even Tylenol. The mouth sutures are a bit bothersome, but those come out in a few days. The temporary tooth in the crown's place, or a "flipper" as it's called, is taking some getting used to and it's made my jaw a little sore, but at least I don't talk like I have a lisp anymore.

It just goes to show you that sometimes nurses become patients too!

I had the best care team!