Losing another day

kw: dentistry, local events

As I reported in A Lost Day, I had a temporary crown put on a tooth on the 9^th. It has been sensitive ever since, more so than it ought. Finally, this morning I called the dentist to ask if there was something he could do. Usually it is a case of a lingering infection, which a round of antibiotics will take care of.

When I called, after I'd answered a couple of questions, the dentist asked me to come right in. He pulled off the crown and said, "Oho, what do we have here?" It was a first for him. Somehow, a seed had gotten wedged inside. The crown must have tipped at some point, but not come off.

Although my appointment to put on the permanent crown was more than a week away, he actually had it already. We discussed it and decided to put the permanent crown in and get it fitted, but use temporary cement, in case any further work might be needed.

He needed to clean off the tooth stub surface to put the crown back. I initially opted to let him do it without anesthetic, but it was pretty intense, so he tried to numb the tooth. As before, he had to inject pretty far back, and this time it didn't "take" properly. He even used a Ligmaject, a special injector that puts anesthetic right at the tooth's root, but some sensation remained. To save time, I told him it was "numb enough" and just gutted it out. He gave me four Advil before I left. He and I share a lot of trust in its efficacy.

I got home about midday and dozed away the rest of the day. The numbing has worn off and so has the Advil, and I have general soreness. We'll see if the tooth cools down over the next week. It ought to, and then a few weeks later I'll get the crown permanently cemented in.

Prior to age 25, I had lots of fillings put in, the silver amalgam kind. Some are now almost fifty years old, which is pretty impressive. But they have a finite lifetime, so I guess I have more of this kind of nonsense in my future.