Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Root Canal Woes 2

Have the temporary crowns in and must go back in for the permanent crowns...

I show up for the appointment and the dentist appears rubbing his hands together gleefully. He says, "Good, now that I've got you here, I'm taking a full x-ray of your teeth."

My initial thought is, we've hit our cap, I'm out of pocket, what's the going rate for x-rays?

He continues, " You've been pregnant for the last two years, you know. Everytime you've been in, it's been for an emergency, so we've taken precautions and only taken a limited x-ray just to get a picture of the bad tooth. You've got a lot of old fillings and dental work. Some of it will need to be replaced, I'm sure. I want to see what I'm dealing with and devise a plan for treatment."

We get the full set of x-rays, and the visit progresses. They pop out the temporary crowns and put in the new ones. They also do a quick cleaning. No fuss, no muss.

Then we're almost done. The dentist shows me my x-rays.

"You see in these pictures you have a lot of old fillings. They look good, they'll hold up. We don't need to worry about them cracking or breaking until next year when your insurance will cover the work again. But look here..."

He points to the tooth that is sitting directly underneath the tooth that started this whole mess.

"You see this filling right? Underneath it is all cloudy. That's a cavity. I'm surpised you're not in pain right now. That will need a root canal, but because it is so deep and close to the jaw bone, the gum will need minor surgery to push it away so that the crown will cover the whole area and keep your tooth intact and your jaw safe from infection. You're young, so I would have to leave it untreated and have to pull the tooth. Then we're talking bridge-work."

He tells me a few more things about how long we could hold off on treating it and why that might not be a good idea; a good person to do the work. I'm sure I asked a few other questions but that's lost in thinking about what an out-of-pocket root canal and crown would cost.

The epic of the styrofoam teeth isn't over yet. We'll need to figure out the best way and time to treat this last tooth. After this, I think I'm going wood. All hardwood teeth throughout a la George Washington.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Ellen,

I am sorry. Stupid McDougal teeth. I am probably in the same boat. I think it is better to get all your teeth knocked out and replaced like patrick.

When does your coverage reset?

Polska said...

2008