A week or so before Christmas, I noticed that when I drank cold drinks, one of my upper side teeth hurt. I didn't think much about it, but noticed that over the Christmas holiday's it hurt even more. I had to drink everything out of a straw and position it just right so that it wouldn't hit that side of my mouth. Drinking water was even a problem. When I couldn't even eat the cranberry sauce (one of my favorites) at Christmas dinner because the cold sensation was too agonizing, I began to consider the possibility that a trip to the dentist might be in my future.
Not having dental insurance, I put it off. I switched toothpaste thinking that perhaps I just had a sensitive tooth. When the pain only seemed to worsen after two weeks, I finally gave in and asked Mom to please make me an appointment with her dentist. Surprisingly, I got an appointment for two days after Mom called.
Given the fact that it had been years (at least six or seven) since I'd been to the dentist, we scheduled a full dental check up, in addition to figuring out what the problem was with my tooth. I was nervous, but I was also tired of hurting. I'd never met this dentist and I'm always unsure how they will react to me. I went back to the exam room where his very nice dental hygienist took x-ray's, and as she did, commented on how white and beautiful my teeth were and asked if I bleached them (this question made my entire week. I don't bleach them, but I always wished they LOOKED like I did!) she asked me what the specific problem was. I told her, she made a note and said the dentist would be in shortly.
He was. He came in, introduced myself and sat down. He said, "Natalie, I'm looking at your x-rays and I'm seeing something I don't normally see...." I braced myself as he stared at my x-rays again. "Natalie, you have perfect teeth! No cavities, nothing is broken or chipped. I see nothing here that I can pinpoint as to why you're hurting."
I was stunned. That was NOT what I was expecting! I thought for sure my "no cavity record" had come to an end! He asked a few more questioned then poked and prodded on the tooth I had mentioned. It didn't hurt at the time, (go figure) He asked when my last dental cleaning was and when I told him "years..." he went back to stare at my x-rays. His dental hygienist mentioned something and he said, "No, no evidence of that....I'm telling you, her teeth are perfect!"
He then came around and said that what he thought it was probably inflammation in my gums and said that since it had been so long since my last cleaning, there was problem some build up there causing my gums to hurt and thus, making my tooth hurt, so he asked me to schedule a cleaning and see if that fixed the issue. He put me on an antibiotic to clear the inflammation, and said to that if it kept hurting or there was any swelling or bleeding, to make another appointment and "we'll look again..." I made my dental cleaning appointment, got my prescription, paid, and walked out and gave Mom the news. Her expression cracked me up! Neither of us were expecting such a "perfect" report!
I've been on the antibiotic now for almost a week. There's still some discomfort, but I can definitely tell that the medicine is clearing up whatever the problem was. I can drink whatever I want now without thinking about it and the constant dull ache is now gone. I had the first part of my teeth cleaning yesterday, and go back for my second part in a month. After that, I'll go in every six months for a cleaning and a yearly check up!
I'm BEYOND grateful for such a great report and that everything turned out SO much better than I had originally thought! I kept imagining that tons of dental work would need to be done (especially given how long it had been since I had been to a dentist). My dentist was incredibly nice....Mom said she's been really happy with him as her dentist too, and everyone I've had to deal with has been incredibly helpful and wonderful to me so far. I'm hopeful that the antibiotics are going to take care of my gum inflammation and that I won't have any other reason to go to the dentist except for check ups and cleanings!
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