Less Than Ideal - "Enhanced" Dental Techniques

Today was a day of necessarily evil. Actually there were a couple days of necessary evil this past week. This morning, I went in to have my 3rd, 4th, and 5th crown prepared. On Wednesday I endured numbers one and two. If you've ever gone through the process of having crowns, you might identify with the trauma of the whole thing. Maybe I'm just being dramatic, but it is really a painful and uncomfortable process.

Thanks to being away for a year, I have to get seven crowns completed and all seven will have been prepped within one week by the time it's all done. Preparation is the process of taking impressions and the dentist drills away all the enamel, part of your tooth, and filling to then place a crown, or cap over what's left.

This is a great website that explains the procedure. Crowns and Bridges and Preparing a Crown

Fortunately I don't need any bridges, just crowns. I was supposed to have 3 or 4 done before I deployed but ran out of time. Most dental offices around here need at least 4 weeks for the crown to be manufactured in a lab and everything needs to be completed now because I won't be in Killeen too much longer. I have been advised to have gold crowns on those molars in the back of my mouth that won't be seen because gold is the stronger and more durable than porcelain. I will get porcelain (tooth colored) caps for those teeth that will be seen.

I really hope this is a smart choice - not wishing to look ghetto fabulous.

In the meantime, I have temporary caps covering those teeth. Temporary crowns are made of acrylic right there at the dentist's office. They are not as sharp and don't conform to your natural bite as well as the real crowns do. You can't eat certain foods with the temps nor would I want to due to the pain caused when chewing anything with some resistance.

Off limits:

Nuts
Raw carrots
Hard candy of any kind
Chips
Granola
Steak
Chewy bread
Peanut or Almond butter (crunchy)

Ok, so I made up the last few but I know I won't be able to eat any of those foods without shooting pain through my teeth. Soft foods, cooked vegetables, bananas, rice and pasta, yogurt, cottage cheese, and soup! HusBand says I should go get something with more vitamins like Ensure too. Maybe I will.

Having to go through all of this dental work  in such a short period of time is not "ideal" my dentist says. Yes, yes, I can't do anything in a normal, humane way. She is very young, and very focused on her work, rushing from one patient to another. I think she was taken aback when, after administering the local anesthesia (a lot - and two different types) I had an emotional breakdown.

Knowing full well how uncomfortable and painful this whole process would be, I was really dreading this second session. We discussed how much work it would be and then decided to work on three teeth instead of four. Then she stuck a huge needle in the back of my mouth, where my lower and upper jaw met to numb the bottom teeth. I always feel the needle go in and then the sharp pain of the anesthesia permeating the tissue. I feel each injection. It takes an eternity. I am sweating and my whole body has stiffened and breathing becomes labored just trying to remain very still while this giant needle was stuck in my gums.

And then I could feel it building slowly. Frustration and panic. Tears started flowing. After she had stuck another needle with a different kind of medicine at the site of each tooth, I was done. I don't know why, maybe it was the "epi-rush" side effect making my heart beat faster that caused my reaction. In no time I was full on sobbing. Felt like a moron, truth be told.

"Was it anything we did?" she asked.
"Noooooo..... I'm ok." I sobbed.

They got me some water and I recovered. I had to get this done. Just reducing the whole thing to something I have to do helped. I don't want to have to worry about getting this done when I'm in school.

The good news is that I have only two more to go and then wait until the gold and porcelain crowns are made. Hopefully it won't be too bad when they put them in. But it took me a year before I could chew on crowns I had done about ten years ago. What a mess. New "enhanced" weight management technique maybe?

Less than ideal indeed.