I'm Newly Crowned

So, clearly that last post about Tom Sawyer was of absolutely no interest to anyone seeing as how I got zero comments. Maybe none of you readers like plays as well as I do. I’ll try to do better today.

Yesterday I had my temporary crown put on. You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by the dentist office because my tooth was bothering me and was informed that I was going to have to fork over $400 for a crown. I was less than thrilled about that, but because the pain was slowly but surely getting worse, I decided I’d better go ahead and get it done rather than ignore it.

So, yesterday was the big day. I talked to my dad on the way and he told me that the doctor may give me some laughing gas. Now, as long as I’ve been going to the dentist (30 years give or take I guess; not really sure how old I was when I started going), I’ve never had laughing gas, or as my friend Amy calls it, Mr. Nose. I doubt I’ve ever written about it on this blog, but Amy loves Mr. Nose. She talks about it with a passion that rivals any football fan’s love of his team. So when I heard that I may finally get to experience the infamous Mr. Nose, I was pretty excited. I thought that I might finally be able to see what all the fuss was about.

I got to the office and they took me back almost immediately. That’s one thing I will say about my dentist is that I’ve never had to wait in the waiting room for more than five minutes. I sat in the chair and the dentist and hygienist went right to work – without offering me Mr. Nose. I was so disappointed. Maybe you have to ask for it. I received the numbing shots and once my mouth was numb, the drilling began. I had taken my iPod with me and cranked up The Beatles while the drilling was taking place. A couple of times I had to spit tooth fragments out of my mouth. It was less than pleasant. Not to mention the fact that my sinuses kept draining while my head was laid back and I thought I might drown in my own drainage.

A few different times while we were waiting for things to set, I was able to sit up instead of lay back and I even got to operate the spit sucker on my own whenever I needed it. I don’t know what that thing is called but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

After almost an hour, the temporary crown was placed on my tooth and I was free to go; well, after I made my first payment anyway. For the rest of the afternoon and in to the evening I felt like I had to annunciate everything very slowly because my numb lip made it seem as though my speech was thick and slurred.

I took some Aleve while at church last night because the numbness was wearing off and I also felt a headache coming on. I ate a baked potato for dinner and some time before I went to bed I noticed my jaw was starting to bruise. This morning, my jaw is still a little blue (not too bad) and I feel like I’ve been punched in the jaw. Eating is also a little difficult as I can’t really chew on my right side and the crown feels weird. Oh well, such is the life of good dental health I guess. One positive thing about it all was that I slept like a rock last night. I don’t know if it was directly related to the dental work or not but I really slept well last night and am quite thankful for that.

The permanent crown will be put on in a couple of weeks; and no, it’s not gold and it also doesn’t have a diamond in it. I wasn’t given either of those options. I just got the tooth colored one – C1 in fact is the color. I hope they don’t have to numb me again when they put the permanent one on but I don’t know, this is my first experience with a crown of any sort; well, other that the princess birthday crown my friend Brenda got me about three years ago. Until next time…