Tooth # 19 Part 2 (Six years later)

Six years ago I had a cavity. A cavity that began to hurt on my plane ride to Scotland, which meant I delayed getting it filled until I was home. When I finally did go see Dr. Wang, he was unable to numb me enough to fill the cavity. The next step was an appointment with the Endodontist. By the time I was able to see one, the tooth had become infected, which meant that I needed to wait another week to have a root canal. Finally, I had the root canal with little pain or difficulties.

Flash forward six years to this Friday night where I am standing in the kitchen all dolled up, waiting for Sean to get dressed and decide to partake of some salt and pepper kettle chips. Had I known I was about to split #19 in half, I would have stopped myself. But the trouble with tooth trauma is unpredictability.

A long weekend and story made short...After crying in the hallway, I mustered up the courage to see an "emergency dentist". I figured i'd have a few to choose from, but quickly learned that if a dentist says they "see emergencies" they mean they see emergencies during their normal office hours. This put me on Saturday afternoon in a shady emergency dental clinic in Everett. And when the dentist (who's name I was never told) spoke to me like I was a football player: "Share-UUUUUUUUUUNNNNN.....busTED a TOOTH", it was easy for me to decide that I wouldn't be having anything done that day. The rest of the weekend consisted of dreading the coming dental work and leaving desparate voicemails for dentists and endodontists.

This morning I was able to see Dr.Patel (great Endodontist if you ever need a root canal), who confirmed that the tooth was savable and decided I would need a general dentist to do the rest of the work.

Now i've seen Dr. Wang for as long as I can remember and I very much love and hate him at the same time. Today was one of our good days. He pulled out the broken part of #19 in less than 5 minutes and without me feeling a thing! Half of #19 is now gone, but you can't tell, it really only feels bizarre. The next step is seeing how it heals and if a crown can be made for it.

The moral of the story is: If you ever have a root canal, INSIST on getting a crown put on right away!