Dental Stuff

I've been to three dental appointments in the last 2 days!!!!

Thankfully I love the new dentist I am seeing.  I was extremely nervous going in and I am particular about my dentists anyway.  Every single person I encountered in this office put me at ease immediately.  I could easily see myself being friends with most of them.  The dentist herself seemed uber qualified-it was just her "vibe". For such an unfortunate situation, I am feeling so blessed that I found a good office to help me with my teeth.

So turns out there was a filling on the tooth that I cracked, and a cavity had actually formed under the filling.  Long story short, the tooth had a degree of tooth decay, thus requiring both a crown and a root canal.  Not great news, but I was glad to not lose the tooth!  So on Wednesday, the dentist did a pulp debridement, where she took the nerve and the tooth pulp out; she filed the tooth down to a much smaller size, and they made the crown right in the office using some of the coolest technology I have ever seen.  They fit the crown on my tooth temporarily and set me up for the root canal the next day.  I was so nervous that my jaw kept shaking involuntarily-I couldn't stop it.  I got one full shot of lidocaine, but could still feel the work they were doing; the 2nd shot took all the pain away, thankfully.  I watched Sweet Home Alabama while they worked and wore my cool ray bans.  I had some jaw pain that night, which radiated up to my head in the form of a huge headache. Thankfully Tylenol solved that problem pretty quick.

I went to their sister office to see their endodontist for the root canal Thursday morning.  I was super nervous about this because the idea of a root canal freaks me out.  I was surprised at how easily it went!  The endodontist gave me a double shot of lidocaine right off the bat and I felt absolutely nothing thereafter.  I did close my eyes for most of the 45 minutes procedure because the sight of the sharp tools was making my stomach turn.  Once they were done, I headed back to the dentist and they fit the crown permanently on my tooth.  They gave me a full check-up and as I suspected, I need a scaling and planing of my gums on my lower jaw-basically a deep clean, which I have done before because I always have a degree of gingivitis.  Last time I had this done, my whole mouth needed it.  This time around, only 2 spots on my lower jaw needed it-I was super proud of myself that it has gotten better.  I do have a few cavities that need to be filled, so we will take care of the cleaning and the cavities on Tuesday--my fourth dental visit in one week!  Crazy!

So at the end of the day, I am glad this is behind me, and I a glad my mouth is in better shape.  I am not the best at going to the dentist, but I have a huge goal right now to really stay on top of my 6 month checkups and not let being a mother and putting my kids first get in my way of good oral health.  Glad this week is coming to a close!