A Dent in our Dental Insurance

Last week I was given some bad news: I have 'cavities' between all of my teeth, a potential tooth that needs a root canal and two teeth that need crowns. I cried, right there in the chair. The hygienist had to wait for me to calm down before she could clean my teeth. Talk about bad news - especially since I had just met this dentist 5 minutes earlier. I sent my x-rays to Charlie's dad and my dentist from home and they don't think it's quite as bad as this dentist said, but they both agreed to get the root canal tooth taken care of ASAP.

Thankfully my parents were in town all this past week so I could leave the boys with my mom. Monday I went in to have the tooth taken care of and to find out if the root canal was necessary. Three hours later, my tooth completely drilled out and a large portion of my gums around that tooth lasered off, I found out that the root canal was, in fact, required. They had to laser my gums to get at the problems below my gums, and that was the worst part to recover from. I needed four shots of Novocaine to finish the procedure and left with a prescription for Extra Strength Vicodin in my hand. I thought Vicodin itself was extra strength?!

The dentist referred me out to a Endodontist for the root canal, a guy who does only root canals all day every day. So Tuesday afternoon, I left for another three hour appointment. Other than the Novocaine shots in the beginning (three of them!), the procedure was nothing to be afraid of like I had originally thought.

I have a temporary crown on my tooth until Thursday when I get my gold tooth. That's right, a little bling in my mouth. Thank goodness it's my very last tooth in the back of my mouth and not in the front!

The $2500 dental coverage I started with is more than 2/3 gone from one tooth and I still have a mouthful of problems to get fixed, including another crown (but hopefully not another gold one!)

The silver lining in this whole ordeal is that I'm not afraid of dental procedures anymore and that my mom was able to watch the boys for the 6 hours that I was gone getting all of this done. The bad news is that there's still so much to have done, including a potential surgery to saw off a layer of my jaw bone to allow more room between my bone and the root of the tooth they just finished. There's a potential for habitual inflammation in that area of my gums if I don't get it done, but 6-8 weeks of painful recovery if I do. Rock, meet hard place. Boo.