I’ve been having major dentistry.
On Monday the dentist took molds of my mouth, ground down two of my back teeth ready for crowns, and took molds of the left over stumps. It didn’t hurt, but it took two hours and afterwards my teeth were very sensitive to hot or cold and I could only chew on the left. It made for a very boring diet of soft, lukewarm food but it was only three days. Then on Thursday I went back to have the implant fitted.
It didn’t fit.
The dentist was really puzzled. He had a good look, tried again, and looked again. Then he called in someone else who couldn’t see what the problem was either. It was frustrating all round. With hindsight, I’m wondering whether the tooth just on front of the stubs had moved a little, now that there was no molar beside it to hold it in the old position.
Since I couldn’t have the implants, the dentist wanted to make me a temporary implant, so I could eat better. He spent quite a lot of time on it, but the implant and the tooth below hit long before the rest of my bite, so I would have been able to chew only at that one spot. The teeth below will need grinding down for another crown (oh fun!) but he couldn’t do that on Thursday because I’d had two injections in the top gum and he couldn’t put another one in the bottom gum. When he was trying to fix that, the implant broke. The one he’d just spent about half an hour on. It’s the only time I’ve seen him visibly frustrated, and I’ve been going there for 17 years. He couldn’t get a temporary implant to work either. He took more molds to try to work this out, and I went home with just the stubs again.
With hindsight, I have a horrible feeling that my bite has changed and the gap between the top stubs and the bottom teeth is too small for any implant.
So I’m still restricted to soft, lukewarm food until I go back on Monday. And I’m not confident that it’ll get fixed then since my teeth are so weird.
It will get fixed eventually. I’m much luckier than the people who can’t get dental treatment at all. It’s just he in-between bit that’s not fun.
