Not a big deal since I have a few to spare. It's hereditary, my grandmother had double rows of teeth, upper and lower jaw. But I digress...

I had a bad tooth for a few years. It started with a little cavity, then an infection, and finally it cracked and one half of it felt loose. It developed an abscess and I was in constant agony.

I had previous bad experiences with dentistry. A long time ago I had one pulled by an unlicensed dentist who operated a clandestine joint in his house's garage. As you can imagine, that wasn't very sanitary, but it's what I could afford at the moment.

But now, I got dental insurance from my job, it even comes with an app that finds you a dentist in your zip code. I found one who speaks English on the third try.

So yesterday I got over my paralyzing phobia and walked into a dentist's office and told them to pull that thing off my jaw.

It wasn't half as bad as I expected. The girl was very good at it and pulled out every fragment of the cracked tooth (she even showed it to me) It was nasty. The infection had carved a hole in the bone of my yaw and it needed a graft. I'm not sure what they grafted there, but I have stitches over the hole. When I put my tongue there it feels like there is a piece of string. It feels kind of weird to find a space between teeth there.

I'm in recovery now. No solid food until that thing heals enough. I bought a bunch of 99-cent soup cans to eat in the meanwhile. It hurts a little, but it's nothing compared to the old rotten tooth that turned into a pus volcano when I pressed the gums under it. It's out! I feel so relieved.

The whole thing was over $2000 but my copayment was only $300. I'm going to have a tight week, but getting rid of that old pain is totally worth it.

I can't wait to be able to munch on crunchy or chewy foods again. I miss tostones and beef jerky.
( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )