The Dentist

I had the first non-horrible dentist appointment of my teen and adult life today!

On Monday night, I noticed that the root canal tooth was turning gray...that can't be good! So on Tuesday morning I called the oral surgeon and it was decided that I should go back to the endodontist before the apicoectomy on the 18th (just to make sure he still thinks it's a good idea to move forward with the surgery)....that appointment got set for next Monday, the 11th. That was Tuesday morning. Tuesday night, a filling fell out of another tooth! And then I started crying. So I went today to have that filling redone. I was really dreading the appointment (as I always am) but it was actually pretty easy. Barely any drilling at all. He also looked briefly at the root canal tooth and said that the discoloration is definitely of internal origin (which is good because I was worried that it was being stained from food/dark blue mouthwash/etc.). Now I can get to work eating more of that blueberry pie! There's a procedure they can do to bleach it from the inside before they do the permanent filling if it doesn't correct itself. Also, both the endodontist and the oral surgeon said that it needed a crown, but Dr. Nasif (general dentist) said that he doesn't want to do that...at least not right away until they know for sure if the procedure is going to work. If the infection returns after the apico, the tooth will have to be pulled, so there's no sense in spending tons of extra money on a crown until they know if the tooth will be viable longer-term.

On another note, he was asking if I've ever tried whitening my teeth and I responded that no, I hadn't, largely because I was concerned that it would further damage my already troubled teeth. So then he said that it wouldn't as long as I didn't go crazy and overdo it....and something about how the cost of the trays and the bleach gel is 300 bucks, but he could give me a 25% discount (I suppose as sort of a frequent-driller-club benefit...blargh). Ha! Way beyond my current budget...but wait...he said that that price was for bleach and trays. I said that I already had the trays they made for me to use with the fluoride gel. Oh, well in that case, they'd just give me the gel today....it's only $30! I paid $40 for the trays, but they charge so much more to make for bleaching essentially because it's cosmetic. $30 for bleach and $40 for trays (that I had already bought) brings my total whitening cost to $70 (really, only 30 bucks because I didn't actually buy the trays for the whitening). But they charge $300 for the same thing! That's a 425% markup! So, I have whitening gel now to start trying. Maybe, just maybe, it will work. Then I wouldn't have to be so self-conscious about my ugly teeth. We'll see. I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet.

On another note, I have to go for my 6 month cleaning at the start of September. Wow. I'm still not done with the follow-up from my last cleaning 6 months ago! But he said today that my teeth look good and he's confident that I won't have any new cavities at the next cleaning. We'll see about that...again, I'm not getting my hopes up just yet.