To put it bluntly, my teeth suck. I got my first fillings at age seven and now sport twelve crowns, several fillings, and have had three root canals. I have probably had $20,000 worth of dental work over the years. My teeth have been holding their own for a while or, at least they were until I went to the dentist last week.

Last Tuesday, I went to the dentist for my six month cleaning. I was expecting to be told one of my lower crowns needed to be replaced; the dentist has been keeping an eye on one for a while. However, that is not what happened. While the hygienist was cleaning my teeth with those wonderful little pointy hooks, one of my crowns came off – and it was not the one the dentist was worried about. After cleaning up the nub of tooth under the crown, the dentist determined that it has a “poor prognosis.” In other words, that little nub of tooth will no longer support a crown and needs to be removed. This left me with two options: a bridge or an implant. A bridge would entail crowning the two teeth to either side of the bad tooth while an implant would replace it. I elected to move forward with the implant. The teeth to either side of the bad one are currently healthy and I don’t want to have them crowned unnecessarily.

The dentist referred me to a periodontist and even called and scheduled my consultation appointment for May 4th. However, the periodontist called later with a cancellation so I actually got in the next day. While the periodontist was looking at my x-rays he said, “I guess the dentist told you that you need a root canal on this other tooth.” No. No, she did not. After a call to my dentist, the periodontist’s office called the endodontist and I have an appointment with her on May 22nd.

The periodontist will remove the remains of my tooth and insert the implant the same day. However, it will require four to five months of healing before a new crown can be placed on the implant. Since the tooth being replaced is a front tooth, I will receive an Essix clear retainer that will contain a “tooth” to hide the fact that mine is missing. The day after my consultation with the periodontist I had to go back to his office for a scan that will be used to create my retainer. Once that was done, my procedure was scheduled for 9am on May 21st.

Of course, this means I have an periodontist appointment on May 21st and an endodontist appointment on May 22nd. I’ll be making a call to the endodontist this week to find out if my appointment on the 22nd is for a consultation or the actual root canal. If it’s the latter, that appointment will get rescheduled. There is no way I’m have two dental procedures back-to-back.

So, yeah. I went in for a cleaning and wound up needing an implant and a root canal. Good times. What’s new with you?