Dental saga

Dental professionals have been working on three different teeth of mine over the last few months. I think back in January the crown over one of the two teeth I had root canaled a couple of years ago – the same crown that came out once before – came out half a dozen times. Finally, my dentist sent me straight to the endodontist (office pictured above) who had done the root canals and he did a mini-root canal, where he went back into the tooth, pulled out some of the stuff, and put in a pin that would keep the crown from coming out. My dentist then put in a temporary crown, ordered a new one, and a couple of weeks later put in the new crown – this was seven or eight visits to my dentist – at no cost to me, our dental insurance, or health care flexible spending (including for the new crown).

Also in December and January my dentist – who like many modern dentists also specialized in cosmetic dentistry – made her annual pitch to get two front teeth veneered – my crown replaced and my one good tooth covered over with a thin matching veneer. I smiled as usual – figuring we wouldn’t have the time or money (and I wasn’t dying to have more dental surgery and haven’t been terribly dissatisfied with my metal-based crown (even with the dark edge around the gum) and the real tooth chipped and filled in three different times). But then I recalled that we actually had almost $3,000 left in health care flexible spending (tax-free) (use it or lose it) money for 2008 that we had to spend by March. At the beginning this was before I went to the hospital in Florida (and early one even before Stephanie went to the hospital for the blood clots?) – and before we sent Vincent to the hospital after he got suspended from school (all of which cost some health-care-flexible spending money). Partly not predicting all of that, I would ahead and signed up for getting the veneers.

I also started committing to this before I realized how many times I’d have to go to the dentist for the other crown.

My front teeth had gotten crowned and chipped as a result of a playground accident in Japan. A Japanese dentist who subsequently retired had done the root canal and crown. The crown was metal based and covered in porcelain. But the veneers would be ceramic. A risk with the reshaping the good tooth for the veneer was that it would damage the tooth enough that a root canal would be required.

Pictured below is my face and teeth through various phases of the four-hour process that day – from my old teeth to the temporary crown, etc. (including some ugly in-between photos - that harken back to that day when I came home from the playground - as it turns out - on the way to the dentist - and smiled for my Mom - and freaked her out since much of my one front tooth was gone - a gap.)

During the four-hour visit several weeks ago, the dentist – a woman who works 3 ½ days a week and takes spring break and Christmas break off to be with her kids – with her assistant out sick – drilled out my crown and shaved my good tooth some – and burned my gum on one side back – after pumping me full of anesthetic. She then fashioned two temporary crown/covers that didn’t look bad. Next, I went to a Korean American lab tech (pictured below) in New Albany – across the street from Stephanie’s old school – who confessed when he learned that I have a metal pin protruding from the root-canaled tooth that it would be challenge to make the veneers look their best – so the light shines through them like real teeth. He looked at the molds the dentist had made and looked at the color of my teeth (that I had been bleaching for almost a month – which makes them sensitive) and also told me some about the secular part of the local Kentuckiana Korean American community.

When I showed up at the dentist this week – two weeks later – Mr. Young was in fact there – but delivering someone else’s fake teeth. For two hours I was in there again – as the dentist shaved off the teeth again and replaced them with the brand-new custom-made teeth. The dentist encouraged me to goo over them – but with the anesthetic and tired it was hard for me to evaluate them on the spot. I have a feeling that they look much better than my old teeth. But with all of the work I’ve missed with all of these dental activities – when I’m behind on projects and missing work due to Vincent goings on and we’re all worried about my job and we’ve spent more of the health care flexible spending in other ways even without this and these teeth – more fragile that my old tooth – may end up feeling a little funny in comparison – it’s hard to know if I would have done all of this if I had to do it all over again. At least I’ll never wonder how I’d look with better-looking teeth – since I’ve already got them. Pictured below is me through phases of this shorter process – with the last two photos with my new (permanent) teeth.

Thanks much to Dr. Burton and her staff. One of many reasons why I went ahead with the switch was that she did all of that free work for me – with the crown that she felt bad kept falling off – that I thought I should have her do some paid work – and – even tax-free – it was paid. Back in February I did a $1,700 charge on my health care flexible spending card – certainly one of the biggest charges of any sort I’ve done. Good work , Dr. Burton, Dr. Norton (the endodontist), Mr. Young, Brittany, Libby, and colleagues!

-- Perry