Pearly whites

After over 20 years of trouble with my front tooth, it's finally gone. And I'm a little sad.....

I've had that wonky, partially black front tooth for a while now and I'd come to like it. It had character and felt familiar and comforting in my mouth. Well, until the damn abscess kept rearing it's ugly head, then it was bloody painful.

Anyway, last Tuesday I went in to have it removed. It was supposed to be an easy 'grip and rip', but it wasn't coming out without a fight. After 3 injections I was still feeling pain, so then had to have the dreaded anaesthetic with adrenaline which I hate. I had to have 2 doses of that, so 5 needles all up, before the area was numb enough for extraction. The abscess was affecting how the anaesthetic worked, so the adrenaline was needed to constrict the blood vessels and keep it all in the right place. Once it was numb, then it was just a matter of the lovely dentist using her trusty pliers to pull the bugger out. By this stage I was feeling quite ill from the adrenaline, with my heart racing and the familiar nervous laughter happening. Eventually it was out though and we both inspected the culprit. It was a tooth in very bad shape, with not just 1 vertical fracture but 3!! No wonder I'd had so much trouble with it, with 3 big canals for infections to travel up!

After plugging up my (no doubt very attractive!) gap, it was time to get started on the temporary one going in. The permanent tooth will replace the temporary one in about 6 months time, just to give the gum and bone time to heal. The temp one looks ok, but it's taken me all week to get used to it. It's glued to my other front teeth via a bridge on the back, which just feels so foreign and uncomfortable. I had trouble to start with even closing my jaw properly, which made it ache and difficult to chew. Maybe it was just the swelling going down, but it's all settled now and not as painful. It still feels really strange in my mouth though, and I'm hoping that the permanent one feels less bulky.

Onto other toothy issues......

The funniest thing happened last night. Xav was exhausted after a busy day and went to bed early at 6pm. About 9pm, I was sitting on the couch surfing the Internet studying, when I heard him tip-toe down the hall. He often wanders out to go to the toilet, so I asked him if he needed to go. "No, I forgot to brush my teeth, I need to brush my teeth", said the little hygienist. Then he toddled into the bathroom, brushed and flossed his teeth and went straight back to bed. He didn't seem to be sleepwalking, he just seemed very upset and slightly distressed that he'd gone to bed without brushing his pegs!

Seems my lectures over the last week about dental hygiene must be giving my children nightmares!!