Posted by Kromey at 8:15pm Sep 9 '09Okay, some quick background about my oral hygiene: From time before I can remember, my parents took me to the dentist twice a year, every year, all the way through my senior year of high school. I kept up that pattern the first year of college, but then the hectic class schedules and exams and just life and I forgot to keep up with them.
Also, in middle school/high school I had braces. I'm missing something like 4 or 5 teeth - they just were never there. My orthodontist used my braces to close up most of those gaps, excepting one gap on my left side where he and my dentist conspired to widen the gap (it had closed some on its own) so that my dentist could install a bridge.
Fast forward to today. I haven't had a cleaning or even just a check-up (barring one frantic appointment where I though my bridge was falling apart when in fact it was just some of the baked-on ceramic chipping off, and another appointment for a severe tooth ache that turned out to just be a result of clenching+grinding (mostly at night)) in... 10 years, give or take. Yeah, I know, bad me.
Anyway, today I get in for this "catch-up" appointment. Instead of the lecture about coming in every 6 months that I was expecting to get, the hygienist just gently reminded me that they recommend coming in every 6 months. That was it, just a single sentence, almost an off-hand remark. She takes x-rays, and immediately spots two problem areas - the first appears to be a cavity forming on one of my (3) wisdom teeth; the second looks like the entire interior of another tooth (happens to be one of the ones my bridge is mounted on) is just plain gone.
The dentist comes in and confirms the first is a cavity, but he's not too worried about dealing with it right now because he wants to have my wisdom teeth removed anyway - they never fully erupted, so there's enough tissue covering them that they're just ripe for real bad bacterial infections because there's no physical way for me (or even my dentist!) to clean them properly.
The second one, the tooth that appears to have no insides, he calls an "internal absorption". You see, sometimes, for reasons nobody understands, the body will begin to re-absorb tooth material. There's "external absorptions", where the enamel and the roots began to get re-absorbed, and there's what I've got, "internal absorptions", where the body simply re-absorbs the material inside that hard protective layer of enamel.
To quote my dentist, "I'm afraid if I push too hard with this [probe], it would break through the enamel and your tooth would completely crumble and collapse." Also, "We can't pull it because if we grabbed onto it it would just fall apart, leaving the nerves exposed." Isn't that comforting?
Anyway, he's going to show my x-rays to the oral surgeon to get his opinion, and then I'm most likely going to get a referral to him to have it surgically removed. Also to have my wisdom teeth removed. And then I'll either need 2 implants (1 for the gap that's currently covered by the bridge, 1 for the absorbed tooth that's currently holding one end of said bridge) or a 4-span bridge (replacing my current 3-span bridge).
Then he let the hygienist back into my mouth, and she cleaned and cleaned 10 years' worth of plaque off my teeth. This "catch-up cleaning" was 2 hours (give or take), which pushed the entire appointment out to over 3 hours!
So, to summarize:
* 3-hour cleaning+check-up to make up for 10 years of missed cleanings+check-ups.
* I still have all my teeth.
* I'm getting a referral to an oral surgeon to remove 2 of my wisdom teeth (the 3rd I get to keep; the 4th never existed in the first place).
* I have an internally absorbed tooth that may or may not require surgical removal, depending on whether it can be restored.
* I've already scheduled my next cleaning in 6 months' time.
Also, in middle school/high school I had braces. I'm missing something like 4 or 5 teeth - they just were never there. My orthodontist used my braces to close up most of those gaps, excepting one gap on my left side where he and my dentist conspired to widen the gap (it had closed some on its own) so that my dentist could install a bridge.
Fast forward to today. I haven't had a cleaning or even just a check-up (barring one frantic appointment where I though my bridge was falling apart when in fact it was just some of the baked-on ceramic chipping off, and another appointment for a severe tooth ache that turned out to just be a result of clenching+grinding (mostly at night)) in... 10 years, give or take. Yeah, I know, bad me.
Anyway, today I get in for this "catch-up" appointment. Instead of the lecture about coming in every 6 months that I was expecting to get, the hygienist just gently reminded me that they recommend coming in every 6 months. That was it, just a single sentence, almost an off-hand remark. She takes x-rays, and immediately spots two problem areas - the first appears to be a cavity forming on one of my (3) wisdom teeth; the second looks like the entire interior of another tooth (happens to be one of the ones my bridge is mounted on) is just plain gone.
The dentist comes in and confirms the first is a cavity, but he's not too worried about dealing with it right now because he wants to have my wisdom teeth removed anyway - they never fully erupted, so there's enough tissue covering them that they're just ripe for real bad bacterial infections because there's no physical way for me (or even my dentist!) to clean them properly.
The second one, the tooth that appears to have no insides, he calls an "internal absorption". You see, sometimes, for reasons nobody understands, the body will begin to re-absorb tooth material. There's "external absorptions", where the enamel and the roots began to get re-absorbed, and there's what I've got, "internal absorptions", where the body simply re-absorbs the material inside that hard protective layer of enamel.
To quote my dentist, "I'm afraid if I push too hard with this [probe], it would break through the enamel and your tooth would completely crumble and collapse." Also, "We can't pull it because if we grabbed onto it it would just fall apart, leaving the nerves exposed." Isn't that comforting?
Anyway, he's going to show my x-rays to the oral surgeon to get his opinion, and then I'm most likely going to get a referral to him to have it surgically removed. Also to have my wisdom teeth removed. And then I'll either need 2 implants (1 for the gap that's currently covered by the bridge, 1 for the absorbed tooth that's currently holding one end of said bridge) or a 4-span bridge (replacing my current 3-span bridge).
Then he let the hygienist back into my mouth, and she cleaned and cleaned 10 years' worth of plaque off my teeth. This "catch-up cleaning" was 2 hours (give or take), which pushed the entire appointment out to over 3 hours!
So, to summarize:
* 3-hour cleaning+check-up to make up for 10 years of missed cleanings+check-ups.
* I still have all my teeth.
* I'm getting a referral to an oral surgeon to remove 2 of my wisdom teeth (the 3rd I get to keep; the 4th never existed in the first place).
* I have an internally absorbed tooth that may or may not require surgical removal, depending on whether it can be restored.
* I've already scheduled my next cleaning in 6 months' time.
Finally got my teeth cleaned today - Kromey