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Pulla-Pulla-Pulla.

Pulla-Pulla Follow-Up.

Was scheduled for follow-up appointment Friday morning, but got that moved up to Thursday afternoon because of the threat of ice & snow Friday morning.

Oral surgeon said, "Open, please. Turn this way." I did. He had a look, & said, "Wow! That looks great! Even better healing than I expected."

Case closed. I think.
-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
I spoke with my dentist on my last visit. Currently I only have 27 teeth in my mouth, and other than a baby tooth that never fell out, I haven't had any teeth pulled. So I asked about my wisdom teeth. He told me I had three, but didn't get four (so I am missing two teeth? I should move with my brother to Arkansas ;)) He said the three that I had were way up in my jaw, and unless then began to move, hardly likely since I will 47, next week, or they begin to cause problems, they aren't hurting anything and to just leave them were they were. Having had prior surgery to go get a missing canine tooth that was next to my lodged nearer to my nose than my other teeth, I readily agreed to that decision. Although the first surgery did cause me to lose 20 pounds in a month....., still seems like to drastic of a diet plan!

Glad everything worked out well in the end.
 
Regina has it just right........blame it on the horn!

For 3-4 days after having teeth pulled, if you have a pressure change in your mouth (vigorous sucking, crazy spitting, using a straw......oh and blowing on a horn!) it will dislodge the blood clot that lies over the bone down in the socket and protects it while the epithelium is growing over it. The "dry socket" feeling is raw bone being exposed....which I bet is how it felt! Lower wisdom teeth are the main culprits. I had a case of dry socket when my wisdoms were pulled.........ooooooooooh doggies, it is NOT fun is it?!

I must say, I warn people of all sorts of things after an extraction, but hadn't thought of warning off brass instruments for a few days. We will add it to our list of rules!

Debi (the dentist)
 
Implanta-Planta-Planta.

The chain of dental events that started with that wisdom tooth pulla-pulla continued on through the year & is not done yet. This morning's chapter was extraction of the molar right in front of where the missing wisdom tooth used to be, followed by installation of a titanium implant where the root of the bad molar formerly was embedded. Once that all settles down, more hardware will get fastened onto the implant & a crown -- permanent fake tooth -- will be cemented on top of the whole works. That part could be 6 months off, I don't know. Meanwhile, I'm not playing horn for a week or so -- & not eating solid foods for 3-4 days.

My layperson's guesswork about what happened is that the wisdom tooth extraction jangled the roots of the neighboring tooth, which wasn't in such good condition anyhow -- cracked & abscessed, but jammed in so tight between its neighboring teeth that the defects did not assert themselves. Removing 1 of the neighboring teeth changed all that & before long I was in toothache city.

Macho man that I am, I planned on toughing it out till my next semiannual dental appointment, with the help of generic Price Club ibuprofen now & then, as needed (maybe a half-dozen times since February 2007). I didn't make it -- got an appointment about a week ahead of the scheduled check-up, & was told the bad news at that time: Root Canal. Then the dentist left for vacation.

My daughter-in-law, who had just undergone root canal, said I should go see her dentist because of the good treatment he did for her. I went. He said he doesn't do root canals on back teeth, but he did a super-thorough exam & found the prospects for saving the tooth were not good even though he referred me to an endodentist.

After an even more thorough examination & digital X-ray, the endodentist said the tooth was a goner -- cracked clear through -- so root canal could not save it.

Next stop, periodental-implant specialist -- although I put that off several weeks so I could play horn at 1 brass ensemble concert & 1 Fairfax Band concert I was signed up to play.

Band concert was last Saturday night. Extraction & implant started 7AM Monday -- & the periodental-implant specialist had me out of there a little after 8AM. The Chief Of Staff drove me home & went to the drugstore for my follow-up prescriptions -- & by now I'm already out of my mind on Tylenol-3. Follow-up appointment with the periodental-implant specialist is 7AM on Halloween -- a scary way to start the day. After that, who knows?

The bills for all this, so far, add up to approximately what we paid for our most expensive Floating Diamond 3BR lock-off Orlando timeshare. When the treatment & restoration run their course, I'm expecting the additional charges to add up to enough for another (resale) timeshare. I'm just grateful that I can afford it & that when major serious specialized treatment is needed, there are competent professionals readily available to do the procedures.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
The Feeling Of Relief.

I am surprised & pleased at the lack of discomfort in the aftermath of Monday's pulla-pulla-pulla & implanta-planta-planta -- no need for any Tylenol-3 after the 1st day, no pain, minimal swelling. Shux, the actual implant site is pretty much without sensation 1 way or another, while removal of that bad tooth has taken away a low-grade discomfort I had been living with more or less non-stop since February. Since Monday I have been eating only softish foods, per instructions from the perio-implant specialist. Tomorrow I will try going back to regular foods.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
AwayWeGo said:


The bills for all this, so far, add up to approximately what we paid for our most expensive Floating Diamond 3BR lock-off Orlando timeshare.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're well into the dozens of dollars!:D

I hope the prevention I endured will preclude any of this pain. When I joined the navy 23 years ago, if you had the potential to be on Submarines, they pulled all your wisdom teeth, regardless. I recall the dentist pretty much with his knees on my shoulders and what resembled a automotive dent puller hammering away at my mouth.
Besides the 4 new holes in my mouth the next day, most of the pain was from my neck; it strained very hard to keep my head on my body during my "minor surgical procedure"

I'm sure it wasn't that bad at the time, but every time I recall it, it gets worse!

Glad you're feeling better!
 
Blondie said:
I'm thinking the generic vicodin is responsible for not only great horn playing, but also for some sassy writing!! Great story. In the world of high school where I work kids routinely have the wisdom teeth out their senior year before any problems occur. It is sort of a rite of passage. The thought is
A- do this while they have insurance and
B- do this before they head off to college when it could become a BIG problem FAST...
Click to expand...

Sounds like good advice to me. Mine needed to come out during finals week before Spring break of my freshman year far away at college. That was a bad deal.
 
Son Of Pulla-Pulla.

Blondie said:
In the world of high school where I work kids routinely have the wisdom teeth out their senior year before any problems occur. It is sort of a rite of passage. The thought is
A- do this while they have insurance and
B- do this before they head off to college when it could become a BIG problem FAST...
Click to expand...
Our older son (now pushing 40, father of our grandson) had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled in 1 oral-surgery session on the morning of Christmas Eve, I believe it was, a few weeks before he turned 19. As I recall, he was hurtin' for certain over just about 24 hours, then pretty much OK after that. I mentioned that episode to him recently & he said he remembers he had'm out but doesn't recall much about the actual experience or the aftermath. Good.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 
Implanta-Planta Follow-Up.

At this morning's follow-up appointment 9 days after extraction & implant, the perio-implant specialist said I am healing satisfactorily -- not exactly news, inasmuch as I've been feeling OK since 2-3 days after the procedure. Next appointment is for late January (after The Chief Of Staff & I get back from a timeshare week or 2 in Florida). At that time, the perio-implant specialist said he will attach some more hardware to the implant & give me some additional hardware that I'm to hand over to my regular family dentist so he can install that & attach a permanent fake tooth to it. Sounds complicated. (And expensive.) As it is already, when I open wide, it looks like I'm sporting Teeth By Tiffany.

Out of curiosity more than anything else, I asked the perio-implant specialist what the tissue source was for the bone graft that he did as part of the implant procedure. "Cadaver," he said. Happy Halloween.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
All I want to say is I hope someone is keeping all of Alan's little snippets in a collection somewhere. I expect to see them collected and sold on Ebay any day now!:rofl:
 
If You Thought Uncle Alan Had A Screw Loose Somewhere . . .

. . . you weren't wrong. But it's all tightened up now & the situation is completely squared away, to my very great relief.

Saturday, after brass ensemble rehearsal, I had a sensation that my recent titanium dental implant was coming loose. I was warned against poking around back there, but I couldn't keep myself from checking out the site digitally. Sure enough, something seemed semi-wobbly.

Then I got to worrying that all the horn playing I've been doing lately might be undoing the work my perio-implant specialist did for me at great expense. Worse, I have 3 upcoming performance commitments on the schedule, plus the rehearsals leading up to those (1 wedding, 1 quintet gig, 1 holiday band concert).

Not only that, I had a performance last night -- The Glorious Sounds Of Christmas -- subbing on 3rd horn with the same ensemble I subbed with in October (at the same performance venue). That's what the rehearsal was for Saturday morning. After the Sunday performance, I had myself just about convinced that I'd wrecked my dental implant.

So Monday morning I called the perio-implant specialist's office & got a 1PM appointment to find out how bad I'd damaged myself -- dentally -- by playing horn. The dental assistant suggested all I had was a loose top screw. "I think that's it," she said. "Don't worry. The doctor will fix it up for you in about 2 seconds."

Top screw ? Who knew dental implants had screws on top? Shux, I thought they worked by screwing on something called an abutment, but only after the implant became well anchored into the jawbone after several months of healing following the actual implant procedure.

It turns out they do work that way, but before that the titanium implants have screw-like coverings that stay on top, right below the gum line, till time to unscrew those & attach the abutments.

Pretty soon the perio-implant specialist came in, had a look, felt around, & said the top screw was loose. It took him just about 2 seconds to retighten it, after which I was good to go -- and highly relieved that I had done no damage to my expensive implant via playing horn.

After coming home relieved of dental anxiety, I had lunch, & signed up via Internet for dental insurance. Coverage starts the beginning of next month & unfortunately is not retroactive for what I've already had done this year. However that may be, it's better to lock the barn door after the horse is out than never to lock the barn door at all.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
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Anti-Climax.

Shux, all the perio-implant specialist did this morning was take a quick look, poke around digitally just a little, look around some more, then declare I'm good to go -- to go to my regular dentist, that is, for installation of a temporary (no doubt) & then a permanent crown atop this newfangled titanium artificial tooth-root implant.

I thought the perio-implant specialist was going to give me some attachment hardware to take with me to the regular dentist. Wrong. My regular dentist already has all that stuff, the perio-implant specialist said. Who knew?

On Friday the regular dentist's billing staff will be surprised when I whip out my brand-new dental insurance card. Last time I was there, all I had with me was my checkbook.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
Thanks Alan for your lighthearted story about your trials and tribulations about teeth. It is good that you are able to keep your head up with a sense of humor even though you had to endure the pain of the extractions and such.

Believe me, some people just hate going to the dentist, (myself and hubby included!).

Luckily, "knock on wood" my two wisdom teeth that did come through, oh wait..I just checked and my upper right one is halfway through..making that three wisdom teeth, but luckily they never gave me any problems. In fact, I never even had a root canal, (I am knocking on my wooden desk as I type this!), and only had a few cavities filled while I was younger.

I know that we should take advantage that we have dental insurance and go for a check up. My husband is petrified to go since he has had very bad experiences in England where he is from.

I think I just have to trick him in going with me for an appointment! :rofl:

Christine
 
Thanks for the stories, Alan.

I had all four wisdom teeth removed at age 19. Unfortunately, at that age, everything in the head isn't solidly connected yet, and my brains leaked out through the holes caused by the extractions.

At least I think that's what happened. All I know for sure is that at age 19 I knew everything, but I've felt less intelligent every day since that time.

My lovely wife, on the other hand, never had her wisdom teeth removed, and - not surprisingly - she still knows everything...
 
You & Me & Mark Twain.

bruwery said:
All I know for sure is that at age 19 I knew everything, but I've felt less intelligent every day since that time.
Click to expand...
Funny how that works.

When I was growing up, my father was a major league doofus in just about every respect.

By the time I was grown & gone, the old man had somehow managed to become extremely savvy & all-round knowledgeable.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
NYBrit said:
My husband is petrified to go since he has had very bad experiences in England where he is from.
Christine
Click to expand...

They have dentists in England? :confused:

(Oops -- did I just say that out loud?) :rofl:

Kurt
 
PigsDad said:
They have dentists in England? :confused:
(Oops -- did I just say that out loud?) :rofl:
Kurt
Click to expand...

That's funny! Actual, my husband told me the reason he was so traumatized is because on two separate occasions, when he was in school, they, (the school), would have a dentist come in and check on all the kids. If a child had a 'supposing' cavity, the dentist would automatically drill and fill the cavity without the use of gas or novocaine!! The dentist and school weren't allowed to give the shot because the parents were not there or notified. But, on the other hand, the dentist was allowed to give the most pain to the poor little frightened child.

By the way, my DH told me that on the two occasions, he never complained of a pain in his tooth at all and none of his teeth were bothering him.

I am so glad they do not do this to the school kids over here!!

Christine
 
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Dental Plan Card + 51 Cents Good For Sr. Citz. Coffee At McDonalds.

I whipped out my high-option dental coverage card only to find out that on the gold crown I'm getting I am completely self-insured. It's an implant crown -- not covered. Regular gold crown would have been covered. Who knew?

So I put away my dental plan card & got out my check book. My outstanding 2008 solid gold implant dental crown is costing me only $28 more than my 2003 winning eBay bid that bought me my outstanding every-year Floating Diamond 3BR lock-off timeshare in Orlando FL.

And that's just for the solid gold fake tooth (parts & labor). For the solid titanium implant, installed last year before I even signed up for dental coverage, I had to write a check for right around that same amount or a bit more (parts & labor).

From what I've been told about dental plans, however, they don't cover implants in any case. So it goes.

Philosophically, I suppose, I can take consolation in knowing I have significantly more money tied up in dental work over the years than in timeshares since 2002 -- plus, it gives me a whole new appreciation for that well known timeshare phrase Gold Crown.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
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Just after DH and I were married, and I was still star struck :rolleyes: , the dentist wanted to remove DH's wisdom teeth. If I remember right they were impacted. Anyway, DH is not the kinda guy that goes to doctors and such easily and was a little ummmm unnerved about the idea. (the nice way of putting it ;) ) So the dentist asked me if I would have mine out. He said my mouth was small and so at some point I would probably need to have them out anyway. DH could see it done and see that I survived and have his done. So I did.The oral surgeon put me under and all four were taken out. I survived and DH saw that other than being a little uncomfortable afterward it wasn't that bad. Two weeks later he had his out. The things we do for our hubby and kids.:p
 
Nobody's Perfect.

Shux, I've got to go back to have new impressions made. The dental lab told the dentist that the impressions he took last week are distorted -- no good for fabricating a solid Gold Crown to fasten onto my solid titanium implant.

That'll string the process out another week or so, eh?

So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
Installa-Stalla-Stalla & Adjusta-Justa-Justa.

OK, Friday the dentist installed my solid gold crown on top of my solid titanium implant. Before he could get it just exactly right, it got stuck. So he said I should show up at his other office Monday morning so he could get it all squared away for me.

Monday morning, he snicked that stuck gold tooth clean off the implant quick as can be, did something to the little gold nugget, stuck it back on to re-check (bite, contact, etc.), declared it good to go & cemented it on forevermore-amen with Super Glue or J.B.Weld or Mighty Putty or whatever the dentists around here are using these days.

I expect the new tooth will last longer than I will -- for a total cost roughly equal to the $$$ I've got tied up in 4 timeshares. Who'd a-thunk ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
Pulla-Pulla-Pulla & More Pulla-Pulla-Pulla.

Now that the novelty has worn off my solid gold crown that's nicely installed atop my solid titanium root implant, I went back to the dentist for nothing more than a regular dental hygiene session & routine check-up.

Teeth are nice & clean. X-rays all look good, the dentist says. But in his professional opinion I really ought to have my 2 remaining wisdom teeth taken out.

While I am not looking forward to that experience with any positive form of anticipation, I still have to acknowledge that for the most part I have a very high grade of problems to deal with compared with (say) folks who have bad teeth or no teeth or no dental plan or no money to pay for dental care, etc.

So even having all this additional & unanticipated pulla-pulla in the picture can't really crimp my Attitiude Of Gratitude.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
Icarus said:
Since I was born with wisdom teeth and have a full head of hair, I guess I'm closer to the missing link than I am to future man. :)

-David
Click to expand...

If you were really born with your wisdom teeth, I sure feel sorry for your momma.
 
I am glad you are healed.

I am also wondering about playing an brass instrument that requires blowing and pressure within the mouth. I remember being told not to use a straw for 3 days after having teeth pulled--and that would be much less pressure.

I hate dental work but I already have 4 implants; so with many years before me I know I am not done. I am glad yours is doing well.

Norma
 
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normab said:
I am glad you are healed.

I am also wondering about playing an brass instrument that requires blowing and pressure within the mouth. I remember being told not to use a straw for 3 days after having teeth pulled--and that would be much less pressure.

I hate dental work but I already have 4 implants; so with many years before me I know I am not done. I am glad yours is doing well.

Norma
Click to expand...

ALAN, Glad to hear you are better. Now that you have a gold crown, DO WE CALL YOU KING.?????
 
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