Sunday, November 03, 2019

Tooth

As I have mentioned several times on here, I struggle to find adequate dental care and come up with money for crowns, bridges, that are more expensive than the car I drive.

The last year has been traumatic and eye opening.    I never got the exam I should have gotten when I went in last January.   I finally did get one in August where two teeth were found to need fillings, although I already knew this because a friend paid for an exam in March with her dentist who found those two cavities that needed filled.  In the exam with the office where I have insurance, in August,  I was told they had no openings to fill them til mid December on one and January on the other.   So I've been waiting months, still have over a month to go for the first appointment, and worrying they'll get much worse.

Anyhow, now one of those teeth is so painful I can't function.  I don't know why it hurts so much.   Maybe it split, I don't know.  I kept thinking if I flossed way up under the gum it would be something that got stuck up under my gum maybe.

The real pain began Friday night, but got steadily worse.  Before Friday night, I'd had sensitivity for a few days, that I couldn't figure out.

Now I can't even touch that tooth.  I'm taking Aleve and trying to survive it til tomorrow.  I wear my night guard to keep my teeth from touching which creates severe pain when that one tooth touches its counter part on the bottom.  Nothing like a toothache to make me grouchy and on edge.

That office I use is supposed to at least get you in for emergencies, but I am practicing in my mind what to say and how to react if they say it will be weeks, or even months before I can get in.  What I'll do then, trying to think of what I can do or where to go.  I don't know.

Anyhow I picked up two cats to be fixed tomorrow, one is formerly of the Lebanon colony, but now lives outside Lebanon with a relative.  The other is one of the new dumps at the park and there have been several.  He is now behind the park in a residential neighborhood and found a kind soul and I got him there.  There are two other new ones there also I need to get in.  I only had two appointments tomorrow and only have those because someone gave them to me.  I didn't get on the ball after my break and make appointments soon enough to get any in November.  I do have 20, 10 on 2 different days, in December but that's it for this year.

I guess I'm getting resigned to the fact that soon I won't have enough teeth to chew anything with.  It's hard now since things get caught in the holes where I have no teeth.  The lady at the Lebanon colony who had four teeth left when I started trapping there, now has only three, because one broke off.  She said my gums would toughen up and it really will be easier to eat once more are gone, rather than having holes here and there. It's not something I really ever thought I'd be considering. But we all get old and these awkward deteriorations begin.

My brother said the high price of dental care and long waits to even get a cavity filled are partly because there aren't enough dentists.   He has a dentist friend, or sort of one, though, who is filthy rich, works very part time, even has two private planes.   So maybe the high price of dental care is partly due to greed.   But I think most dentists now work for these chain companies and the main ones getting rich are the corporate people in those chains I think, but I don't know much of anything.

My brother doesn't go to the dentist.  He says its because he's on blood thinners.   When we talk we call it the over sixty gripe sessions.   I'd basically tried to get anyone on the phone Sunday.  I wanted to complain about my aching tooth.  He was the only one who answered but he sounded really tired out.  I asked why he sounded so tired.  He said he and his wife binge watched 3rd season of Atypical Saturday night and were up til after 2:00 a.m.   Oh, I said, been there, feel drugged and drunk and dirty afterwards, like I was at a bar on a binger and woke up next morning next to a dumpster in a dirty alley.

All I know is I wait months to get one cavity filled and if I get one crown with a bridge to fill one empty hole, I have to get a loan and be in debt for years to come.  That's what I told my brother who was a sympathetic phone audience especially since he was so tired he was barely lucid.  I like that in a listener.  They don't say just deal with it, like some folks, pressed for time, and with their own too many problems, are prone to saying.

I am afraid of dentures, like I'm afraid of being banished to a nursing home.   I suppose it is because I have friends with dentures that they struggle with.  My friend in Corvallis is on her third pair now, which took months and oodles of money to get made.  Her first pair were so terrible it took awhile for her to even show them to me in her mouth.  Yes, they were awful, didn't fit her mouth, didn't fit her gums and the teeth were HUGE!     She was too embarrassed to wear them.  That and she couldn't really wear them, they fit so poorly. 

Anyhow, this latest pair, when she first had them in her mouth and they got screwed in because by this time, she had 11 implants, I could tell they didn't fit.  The tops didn't meet up with the bottoms!!!   The implants are little posts to screw dentures to, so they'd stay put.  This is a new development in dentures, but also an extremely expensive one, available only to those with enough money.  Those implants are over $5000 each I think she said.  She couldn't wear them.  She said only two teeth met up for chewing. 

Back to the drawing board, same dentist, and months later, he'd redone them so they were a little better.  Yet still, I can see the front ones, then the teeth beyond it, I don't know, they just don't look right and she says they don't meet up right and hurt her gums.  So she's going to try someone else now, down in Eugene.  She got bad information initially.  She had good teeth on the bottom and the first dentist convinced her to have them all pulled too.  What a mistake that she regrets to this day and curses going along with it.

Anyhow, I don't want dentures.  I know too many people for whom they are a  nightmare.  Don't fit, look like crap, click and fall out when they try to eat.....this one guy I know, anytime he sneezes or coughs, they go flying. I should add that guy is pretty good at catching them with one hand as they go flying.  It's amazing, really.  Oh boy.

12 comments:

  1. That sounds suspiciously like an abcess to me. I hope you can get in to see a dentist. Fast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not swollen up.

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    2. A deep seated abscess may not swell.

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    3. Yeah you are right EC, well I have some antibiotics here I can start on if I can't get any from a real doctor. Guess I can play one.

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  2. Go to the drug store and get some clove oil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok, what does that do? I'll try anything at this point.

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  3. Anonymous8:45 PM

    I feel for you. It is the most horrible pain. Yes, clove oil is good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will get some to have on hand now.

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  4. Tooth pain is horrible. If they put you off again, I'd show up in the waiting room and say you'll be there until they work you in. I don't know how the system works, but obviously, there are not enough dentists participating in your program.

    And I'm sure you have noticed the irony of the dental care you get for the cats you rescue is much faster than the dental care you can get for yourself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, not enough. But at least I got in. I think they mainly have time for extractions, not extensive work. Not sure. It is ironic I can get a cat in sooner, for multiple extractions.

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  5. I agree with clove oil. I’m sorry you’re in pain. In a lot of the situations I read about with student loan crises, a lot of the people were dentists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet they do have a lot of debt. Veterinarians do also which makes me sad. One of my nieces is still burdened in student debt. She went to law school, years and years ago, but its really outrageous.

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