I was told
about three months ago I had to be careful as my lower back molar had a
crack in it and I had to be careful!
So for
months, Thanksgiving, Christmas and my trip to Vietnam and
Cambodia. Be careful. Well, on Tuesday,
February 6th, the last day of touring
Angkor Wat ruins, I was having beef noodle soup, safe I thought,
wrong! I just took a photo of the restaurant from where we were
sitting and the area outside where our guide and driver were
eating. Suddenly I felt something strange and I told Barbara that
1/3rd of my molar had fallen off! She asked sweetly, "Was it a good
tooth?" "No", I said. She said that was all right then!
At least the nerves were not exposed so I was all right to finish the
day and fly back from Siem Reap to Saigon to Taipei and on to San
Francisco on Wednesday.
I had a dental appointment the next Tuesday but my molar was bothering me and I was worried as it was Friday, February 9th, so off to the emergency dental office. Nine A.M. and by noon, five different dentists had checked the tooth and after many referrals, decided the tooth was history. So they said to come back at two P.M. and have it out. Well at two they said too bad, no appointments left for the day and I should go home and come back the next Wednesday. I was not happy and bitched and they finally put in a temp cap that fell off within 24 hours.
So I just waited until Wednesday, February 14th at 9:30 A.M. when the young dentist tried to pull the tooth. He got half of it out but couldn't get the other part out. He had someone hold down my shoulders and another one hold my jaw. No luck. So he got the senior dentist and he said to sit me up and he then took a large pliers type instrument and gave the tooth a good yank and out it came. No stitches and home I went. So goes the story of the molar and Angkor Wat!
Well the story isn't over!
The following week I found I had a sharp piece of bone just under the gum that had healed from where the molar had been pulled. I had a dental appointment on Thursday, February 22nd to start work on a left upper tooth for a crown. As I walked into the dental school I saw the oral surgeon who had trouble pulling the molar. I told him what was wrong and he said they would probably have to do an incision and 'plane' down the bone! So off to my appointment and my dentist and two of the instructors agreed that I needed oral surgery again and we would set up another appointment for that. In the mean time my dentist went to work on the crown. My oral surgery to remove the unneeded bone shard where the molar was is on Wednesday, March 7th and let's hope that will be the end of that problem area! The next appointment for the impression to make a crown for the left side is on Wednesday, March 28th! At least my teeth will be in great shape after all the work that has been done on them, and get this, all done for free as I am a veteran and I am on a special program!