not my smilin' tooth

Stu Price: Hey, Phil, am I missing a tooth?
Phil Wenneck: I can't...oh, shit. 
[Phil starts to laugh. Stu picks up a mirrored tray and sees he's missing a tooth]
Stu Price: Oh, my God. My lateral incisor's...it's gone!
Phil Wenneck: It's okay. Okay, okay. We just need to...just calm down. We're fine. Everything's fine. Alan, go wake up Doug.
Phil Wenneck: Let's just get some coffee and get the fuck out of Nevada before housekeeping shows.
Stu Price: What am I gonna tell Melissa? I lost a tooth. I have no idea how it happened.
Phil Wenneck: You're freaking me out, man. I got a massive headache, okay? Let's just calm down.
Stu Price: How am I supposed to calm down? Look around you.

[looking in the mirrored tray at his missing front tooth]
Stu Price: I look like a nerdy hillbilly!

taken from the movie The Hangover

It has not been a great day!

Several weeks ago, quite actually the day of the "off color" families yard sale, I was eating a piece of cheese and part of a filling and a piece of my tooth fell out.  It felt like a big hole on my toungue, but since I already had a dental cleaning scheduled the next week, I decided to wait.

When I went to the dentist, the hygienist and the dentist who examined me played it down telling me they could fix it with a replacement filling.

I was pretty thrilled.

I scheduled the repair work to be done at the end of October....

well last night,

in the middle of the night,

it started hurting...

enough to wake me up.

This morning it continued, so when I got to work, I walked down the hall and they were able to quickly fit me in to get it checked out.  I had already used half a tube of baby Ora gel by the time they were able to work me  into a slot.

A really funny hygienist called me back, looked at my x-rays and shook her head.  She said, "this doesn't look good."  I off course argued with her a bit.

We took more x-rays and then she set me down...

looks like we could try a filling--but I'm not sure it will work.  Your either looking at a very expensive root canal and crown plus additional work to come later or a cheap fix of extraction.

I looked at her horrified and quickly said,

"but a sexy hot mama like me, can't be walking around without a smilin' tooth".  She laughed and then showed me that the tooth I was having problems with was the very last on on the top back right.  She showed me my bite and said, "you really don't even need it for biting down, only a slight portion even hits....I promise you---this is not a tooth that will show or any kind of smilin' tooth."

The dentist arrived and he basically said the same thing...except he added a few more scary details about how they would have to grind down a portion of my bone to make the crown fit correctly which was an additional procedure.  All in all....he could try to save the tooth but it would be very, very expensive and might last for six months if I was lucky."

I thought for minute, asked a few more questions and then said, "Okay....take it out."

My heart pounded....

They numbed me up...

and numbed me up...

and then attempted to loosen the tooth.

 felt pain...inject more...

this happened about eight times---I forgot to tell him that none of my epidurals ever worked when I had C-secions.  He finally got me numbed up....and worked on my tooth for about an hour.

After working out as he called it, he looked at the hygenist and said,

"This is gonna be a surgical removal."

He numbed me some more and then started again with a saw like thing---sounded like some kind of torture device out of a horror flick.

I could smell bone burning...

and finally he got a piece out.  I was excited--I just knew he was done.  When I asked, he said,

about two more peices of root and then we are done.

Two hours later, I return to work---minus an almost smilin' tooth--and looking like a swelled up face sexy hot mama.

After work i picked up my "really good medication"

and am now on my way to being "pain free"....

Not the best day in the world

when one

loses an

almost smilin' tooth...

least I'm not barefoot

and since it is in the back...

well

I guess I need to just be thankful that I don't look like one of those nerdy hillbillies
and if any words are misspelled or something doesn't make sense..
we will blame it on the narcotics...

Happy Tuesday...

hugs.