So last night I broke another tooth! I was eating a bowl of cereal for a late night snack. Cereal! With milk. I even let it get just a bit soggy. But there was a hard little nugget of corn in the corn flakes and I bit down on it at just the right angle to snap off the front of one of my teeth.
It was terrifying! A HUGE filling dropped out and then the front of the tooth popped out. I was expecting a big wave of pain but it never really came.
This was a tooth just back of my left canine. It totally shows when I smile.
I was lucky enough to get a dental apt this morning, but they sent me home without fixing anything. There's just a slight chance that the good doctor can restore my tooth, more or less, with composite material. Sort of a long term temporary solution. The more traditional route is to do a root canal, build it back up and put on a crown. Having that done in Chiang Mai would cost about $750. Having it done in Santa Rosa about $2600.
I can get to Chiang Mai for $1100. That would save me around $750 and I know the work would be done very well. But I'm not eager to spend two days on a plane, and it seems like I was just over there anyway.
My other option, tooth wise, is to just get it pulled. Just like the last tooth that broke back in June. That's about $750, including the 'bone graft'. The dentist would then make me some sort of "appliance" that looks like a retainer with teeth stuck in it. That would take care of my other missing tooth too, until such time as I win the lottery and can afford implants.
So I'm hoping she can just sculpt me a new tooth, but otherwise, I'm going to look like a freaking hillbilly for a while. Yee haw.
No comments:
Post a Comment