The Adventures of Toothie....

Note: this post is mostly my effort to journal my teeth experiences and for my posterity. If you have no interest in my dental history, please disregard.

My coworker nicknamed my front tooth "toothie" and told me that if I ever got a new one I should register at CVS and she would throw my a shower.

But why would I need a new one you my ask?

Well, it all started about 9 years ago on a windy day a Joey's Park in Belmont, MA by Winnbrook Elementary School. Julia and I were warming up together at softball practice...and with one pass to me and a gust of wind, I was in the pre-school bathroom (very short sinks) looking at a bloody mouth, one chipped tooth, and one broken tooth. (side note #1: this was not Julia's fault...I blame it on the wind, or possibly my sad softball abilities) I'm hazy on all the details...but over the next three years and after many many appointments I came out with one root canal, one metal post, and a porcelain crown. (Did I mention this is one of my front upper teeth...you know, the ones everyone sees when they look at you?)

Then I was off to college. The first porcelain crown served me well for the first couple years at school until another fateful day during a basketball game. I was guarding Julia during an intramural game (which turned into a scrimmage due to the other team not having enough players). Julia was posting up down-low and her teammate passed her the ball. Julia wasn't ready for the pass (she swears she wasn't open, so that's why she wasn't expecting the pass) and she flung her head backwards right into my mouth housing my lovely porcelain crown. The crown cracked and fell out and thus was born crown # 2. (side note #2: a couple months after my second crown was put in on my front tooth I found out that one of back molars had also cracked due to having two fillings put in right next to each other which caused that tooth to split...so now I have two crowns). Thanks to my lovely Aunt JoAnn, I found a great dentist in Provo who did a smashing job on crown #2.

Crown #2 was also holding up quite well for quite a while...it got me through the rest of college and graduate school. Then, in August of '08 we were at the beach one day with E&B and the kids, and I bit down into a candy and part of my crown chipped off in the back which caused the crown to come a little bit loose. But I couldn't do anything about it because Phil and I were both unemployed at the time and we didn't have dental coverage or any money. So I tried not to use that tooth until I could go see my dentist. Then about 5 months ago my dentist took the crown off and reattached it.

This now brings us to last month. I woke up one morning and my crown felt a little bit loose. I hadn't done anything to it, so I thought maybe I was clenching my teeth or something and that did something to it. But once again, I just ignored it and thought, well it isn't that loose so it would probably be OK for a little while. Last weekend I was in Utah for Julia's baby shower and I bit down on a chicken salad sandwich and I heard/felt my crown crack. It had come a bit more loose. I decided I would make an appoint with my dentist for my 6 month and have her look at it. Then yesterday during our Sunday School lesson, I was wrapping things up, reminding the kids that they need to behave during our Primary Program practices, and my crown + the metal post just fell out mid sentence. I fit right in since half of our class is also missing that same tooth. But I ran to the car, Phil wrapped up the class and then we drove right home and I called the dentist's emergency line. I saw the dentist this morning, and the news was not good.

Apparently my tooth (or what still exists of that tooth) has fractured due to normal movement of the metal post. She said this was inevitable in a tooth that has had a root canal w/ a metal post, so that's why it just fell out. Why didn't anyone warn me that this could happen? Who knows. But my dentist told me I needed to go see an oral surgeon who would perform an extraction and put an implant in it's place. In the meantime, she attached my crown back on with some cement and told me to pray that it would stay in until I could get an appointment to see about that extraction.

apparently, this is what a dental implant looks like...ouch!

In my conversations with friends, family, and coworkers, I've come to the conclusion that lots of people have similar issues with their teeth, they just don't talk about it as much. So to ease my anxiety about the coming extraction (think wisdom teeth...but in the front), at least I can take comfort in the fact that I'm not alone in the extraction/dental implant arena. (side note #3: somehow this doesn't comfort me one bit....)