Toothache pain. Hurt three times.

[vicrider 0]

Last week I got hit with a nasty toothache, the first I've had in years. I also pulled a muscle in my lower back that had me cobbled up and just couldn't get in and out of the car so I suffered with it from about Tuesday through the weekend. Ibuprofen helped both the tooth and the back but just mitigated the pain, didn't end it. So Monday got on the phone and started calling the dentists in Elk City, our closest real town. 5 listed offices and the first four weren't taking new patients. What the Heck? Finally the fifth one said they could fit me in tomorrow afternoon but could not guarantee the dentist would have time to do the pulling right then.

Okay, so I got in to the app't and first they have to get a full history. Got that taken care and back to the torture chair. Helper is at least good looking young gal and does an x-ray but can't get the easy one with me biting down and has to get in another gal to shoot the film while she forces the film down into my mouth and it hurts. Well Doc comes in, looks at my rotten mess of teeth and the x-ray (which by the way is digital and shows up immediately on a TV screen) and lets me know the tooth hurting me has also caused some infection on the one next to it and they both should come out. If you want this done today I'll have to numb you twice and come in and out a couple of times. Okay, do it.

So nurse goodbody stick this long swab with some goop on it to numb my mouth for the shots. It of course tastes something awful and that's too make the shots less painful? Well he comes, gives me three shots and one really hurts. He leaves and says he'll need to give me two more since these teeth are in a sensitive spot. Okay, time goes by and he shows up and gives me a couple more shots. He takes off and is gone for a short time, comes back and says lets do this. Well, the first tooth comes out with a little wiggling and cracking and not bad. Second must have stretched the nerve an inch before it broke off because it did hurt. Well, he did his packing, set me up with a couple of scrips for painkillers and antibiotics, gave me a few instructions and off he went. I went to the waiting room and patient wife was still there anyway. Got to the checkout and got my bill. Itemized...$637 dollars!!! Office visit 100, x-ray 37, two extractions at 250 per tooth. I can remember when a dentist would pull a tooth for 40 dollars but some young guy from dental college discovered the word extraction and costs have skyrocketed. I'm thinking it's time for dentures but found out they would be 2300 per plate plus the extraction of the 15 teeth I've got left at 250 a pop. Guess I'll have to be a gummer for awhile.

[cphubert 0]

Nick you are having a rough year for sure. Toothaches are some of the worst things I have ever experienced.  Medicare doesn't cover any of it and you are correct about "extractions" I asked a dentist to pull one and they flat out refused insisting on a lot of work and a bill that would have amounted to close to 3 grand, took a bit to find one to just pull it. Reminds me of my grandfather, he had a meat grinder clamped to the table and all of his food went through it after he had most of his pulled.

[chugbug27 0]

Nothing like fixing a toothache to give you a headache. I do have "dental" coverage, but the only in-network periodontist / endodontist / surgical office to deal with all the shenanigans is three hours away in another state.

Good news was, she saved my tooth, after my local dentist had told me it would need to come out. Bad news was, on my drive home I stopped for a sandwich and chewed up the numbed cheek, real bad. ("What's that crunchy sound, this is tuna fish...") 🙄 Doc said I might need surgery to repair the damage I did to the saliva duct there. But it got better on its own so I dodged that bullet, too. Incidentally I googled what to do after chewing your numbed cheek out, and all I could find were videos telling parents of toddlers that toddlers sometimes will do that....

[flytire 0]

wait until they start drilling your jawbone for dental implants

it wasnt pretty

[vicrider 0]

My jawbones are too old and fragile for implants. One of my S-I-Ls had it done and it didn't work. Had to come out and get plates. He had to get a lawyer to get part of his money back since it should have been established his jaw was not acceptable to total implant. Those costs are about triple the denture route and I wouldn't be around long enough to make it pay off.