Pretty ugly, eh? It’s certainly been through the wars. See how close the filling (left side) gets to the root. That tooth was doomed. |
Yeah, yeah, I know, that pun’s been done to death, even by us…I’ve got gauze crammed in my mouth and I’m popping Advil like candy, so I’m not in the mood to think of anything cleverer.
I went to the dentist about three weeks back to get a filling on a premolar. Normally pretty straightforward, except that this particular tooth was a baby tooth (deciduous tooth in dentist-speak) with no permanent tooth under it, and not in great shape (much of the tooth was already filling). The dentist warned me that the new filling was pretty close to the root and so there was a good chance the tooth wouldn’t make it. Trauma to a root can cause interior swelling; in such a constrained space the circulation to the nerve could get cut off and it will die. I was told to scarf ibuprofen the first few days to decrease swelling, but watch out for pain several weeks down the line.
After the filling there was a fair bit of achiness on and off, but when I found a few days ago that I couldn’t chew on that side for the pain, back I went to the dentist. Root canal wasn’t much of an option since there was no guarantee the baby tooth would last long, and would cost a third as much as a replacement, which I’d probably end up getting anyway. So out the tooth came! Come January I’ll be entering the wonderful world of dental implants! Any insights?
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Laura says:
December 7, 2006 at 6:26 pm (UTC 0)
Oh, and hey mom? I think the tooth fairy owes me something! 🙂
Tamiko says:
December 8, 2006 at 4:48 pm (UTC 0)
Holy cow! Like, that’s your baby tooth??! Does that mean your adult molars are growing up into your brain??!!
Laura says:
December 8, 2006 at 6:44 pm (UTC 0)
Good thing I don’t have to get any others pulled or I wouldn’t have any jawbone left…
Apparently, from what my dentist suggested (and what the x-rays looked like), only baby teeth have these humungous, curving roots; adult teeth’s roots are much more sedately straight (more like the cartoon tooth pics hanging up in dentists’ offices). We just never see baby tooth roots because usually they dissolve before the teeth come out!