Tooth trouble...

WARNING: You may want to just skim over this blog entry if you have a weak stomach...

These last couple of weeks have been quite eventful for me (in a bad way unfortunately). It all started out while my kids were off track and I had a dentist appointment. The past year I have had to undergo a lot of dental work and I was hoping that I was finally out of the woods. Well, it turns out that one of the teeth I had a crown put on last year for some reason or other managed to develop an infection in the root so the diagnosis was that I needed a root canal. I wasn't too happy, but I thought, no big deal. I have had one other root canal done and it really wasn't too bad.

So I went in the next week to have the root canal done. The dentist started by drilling through the crown and was successful with that, so we were off to a good start. Well, the dentist then started on cleaning out the insides of the roots and then he took an x-ray, did some more work, took another x-ray and then came back and said that he was going to have to send me to a specialist. "What? Why?" I tried to say as my mouth was still being held open and I had some files sticking out of my tooth... It turns out that for some reason or other he couldn't get down to the bottom of any of the three roots and he didn't want to end up causing damage trying to do it. He referred me to an endodontist who specializes in these types of procedures. So I called up that office and they scheduled me for a consultation 2 days later.

The strangest part of all of this is that I have not really had any pain or hot/cold sensitivity in that tooth. It has been a little sore now and then when I would chew on that side of my mouth, but I thought all along that it was my implant still healing.

The news from the consultation was worse than I could have imagined. It turns out that the infection in my tooth had gotten into my jaw bone and they would most likely have to cut into the gums to get at the infection in the bone! Yuck!! The procedure is called an apicoectomy. To top it all off the endodontist recommended that I be put to sleep for the whole procedure. In his experience when you have to work with the bone, sometimes there is pain that can't be treated with just local anesthetics. To make matters worse, the tooth with the infection is right next to the implant that I just had put in last May (a baby tooth gone bad that had no adult tooth under it). If the infection in the bone spreads it could affect the implant which would mean I would need the implant removed and a new one put in. So I scheduled an appointment for the surgery for the following week.

As you can imagine, I was quite upset when I came home and had to call my husband at work and tell him all of this news. My teeth have seemed to be nothing but a money pit lately. To complicate matters even more this was on a Friday and the following Tuesday my husband was scheduled to go up to the Granite Mountain Records Vault for 2 weeks to update their scanning software to the newest release he has been working on. This date was picked after many meetings and discussions and plans to try and ensure that things would go smoothly. The date picked for my surgery was the following Friday and my husband (or someone else) would have to come to the appointment to drive me home.

So after talking to my husband at work he made some phone calls to some of the higher ups at work to see what they wanted to do. Even though I protested that I would probably be fine after the surgery and that he could go up to the vault if they ran into problems later on in the day, my husband made the decision that he wanted to be home that whole day to help me and to take care of the kids. So after talking to some managers they made the decision to put off the installation at the vault for another week, for the Tuesday after my surgery instead of the Tuesday before.

I was a little unsure about being put to sleep since I have never had it done to me before. I was also a little concerned because in all of the dental work that I have had done in the past year (and in previous years I have had wisdom teeth pulled), this was the first dentist who actually recommended that I be put to sleep. All of the other times I have had dental work done the dentists have recommended that I not be put to sleep but if I really wanted to, they would do it. Even with my implant where the oral surgeon had to drill into my jawbone and literally screw a screw into it, I was just given a local anesthetic and I didn't feel a thing (I hope I haven't grossed anyone out yet).

I found out on Sunday that our Relief Society had a temple trip planned for Tuesday morning and I decided to go with them. While I was there, my upcoming surgery was on my mind and I just felt a peaceful feeling that whatever I decided to do I would be fine and to rely on the priesthood. So I decided to go ahead with being put to sleep and I had my husband to give me a blessing before we left for the appointment on Friday.

They had given me a sleeping pill to take the night before so that I could sleep. I don't think it really worked though because I still woke up in the middle of the night like I usually do...

The whole procedure took longer than they thought it would. Apparently they had to remove more infected bone than they initially thought and ended up putting in a piece of artificial bone in its place. Also, I apparently have REALLY long roots on that tooth and they had to cut the bottoms of the roots to get them all cleaned out and then put caps on them to seal them off. (DH says that the endodontist told us that I have the roots of an NBA player, even though I don't remember that part...)

I don't recall anything of the procedure and it's probably a good thing. I remember asking after it was all done if I needed to come back for a follow-up appointment and I vaguely remember being put into a wheelchair to be wheeled out to the car. My husband said that I was talking and I apparently gave him some directions on the way home because we ran into traffic, but I don't recall any of that. We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home to get some prescriptions filled and the only part I remember about that is that when they asked for a birthdate, my husband started giving them his own and I corrected him and said that he needed to give them my birthdate. I then vaguely remember getting home and my husband asked me where I wanted to go to lay down and I said that I would just lay on the couch and had him put a DVD in for me to watch. The next thing I knew I woke up and Kitty was cuddled up on the couch next to me asleep. At first I thought it was Blondie because Kitty is not really a cuddler, but then I realized that it was Kitty. DH said that he was upstairs getting the kids lunch and he came down and saw her like that so he's not sure how it happened either.

I actually haven't been in a lot of pain. The endodontist gave me a prescription for a painkiller but I only took it for the first couple of days and then I have just been taking tylenol when it bothers me now and then. The most painful part has been opening my jaw wide. I still can't open it too far without it hurting and it hurts to yawn. I was pretty swollen the next day - I looked like I had a big wad of gum in my cheek. I was able to talk fine, I just looked pretty funny.

On Sunday morning I got a call from the YW counselor over the Beehives who was going to teach the lesson that day saying that she was really sick and was wondering if there was any chance that I could teach the lesson (she was not aware that I had undergone dental surgery). I agreed to since I did feel fine really (as long as I didn't smile too much) and I had read the lesson several weeks before, plus we don't have church until 1:00. I then got a call from the YW president making sure that I was okay with teaching with such short notice. I assured her that I would be fine, in fact I had just finished printing out all the handouts for the lesson. About 10 minutes later the YW president called me again and said that she had just heard from one of the other advisors that I had just undergone dental surgery on Friday and she was concerned for me having to teach. I then told her that I really felt fine, I just looked a little funny since I was still a little swollen. I thought it was sweet of her to call though and make sure I was really okay with that. There were quite a few people at church on Sunday who were quite surprised to see me though. I had to keep assuring them that I really did feel alright.

I'm just over a week out from the surgery now. I've got quite a few stitches in my gums so I can't eat on that side of my mouth until those heal and I can't really brush my teeth too hard on that side either. I go in this Thursday for my follow-up appointment so I'm hoping and praying that things look good and that the infection is gone and that things are healing well. So, stay posted and I'll update everyone later on this week...