My Toof!

Groan. I got me a bad tooth. Not a bad tooth, actually, but an over-reactive protective lining between the tooth and the bone, a phenomenon called external resorbtion. This is a fancy term to explain that my body is reclaiming this tooth slowly.

At the dentist yesterday I mentioned, when asked if there was anything else going on, a slight discomfort if I pushed on a part of my gum above the tooth. The dentist then took a closer look at the xrays, tinkering with settings until he got a sudden glimpse of something that made him sit up straight and stop moving. Never a good sign. Physiologically it is a minor form of psychogenic shock, when the brain is overloaded to the point of hindering normal proprioception. In other words, something freaked him out and he needed a minute to collect his thoughts.

He explained what he thought was happening and decided to probe the tooth with a sharp hook. Found a hole just below the gum line, hence the pain. then to see if the nerve was intact he froze my good tooth, which hurt like hell, then froze the bad tooth, which also hurt like hell. "Good," he says, it means the nerve is in tact.

Then off to the periodontist (peri meaning around, dontist meaning pain) for more probing with a sharp hook and another explanation that what is occurring to my toothe is not seen very often, if at all.

After getting home and doing some research, the bad news is setting in.

Since there is no way to treat the hole that has appeared, or find out what is causing it, there is only one treatment: extraction. They want to take my front tooth.
This kind of thing is more often seen coming from the inside out, but rarely from the outside in.

So here I sit, just 45 minutes from my appointment with the root canal specialist, since my regular dentist said he wasn't comfortable doing it. That makes me feel awesome.

I've had great teeth and checkups until now so this is really a bummer.

More to follow.