Freaky Tooth Blog Entry #3

******* Mid-July Update**************
So I went in for a check up with the periodontist in mid-July. Essentially, at that point in time, he said that things looked good and were healing well. He asked how I was getting along with the flipper and said if I were doing well, we could just keep it in for another couple months and then do the permanent crown at that time. Wellll... I think most of you know how much I do not care for the flipper, so I asked what the alternative was if I didn't want to keep the flipper for 2 more months. He said that we could do "something temporary" in between that would not be the final product but would get the flipper out of there. So while I can tolerate the flipper... it was mildly irritating to still not be able to say the words "teacher" and "sheet" very well- especially when doing many workshops this summer with teachers and handing out worksheets. So I say, lets go temporary.
The perio says he will call the dentist to tell him to do this... the dentist should call me, etc. After a couple weeks of a game of 3-way phone tag, I finally had an appointment scheduled for yesterday afternoon at 5:00 with the dentist to do "something temporary."

*******Monday, July 31st Update*************
On Monday, I got a phone call from my periodontist telling me that he needs to talk to me. Hmmm. Ok. So I call him... and he says, well.. before they can do something temporary, we need to attach the abutment to your implant. (Essentially a metal post that hangs down and give you something to build a tooth around. ) So I was wondering if you could come in at 3:20 today (Monday) and if you would mind going without a tooth for a day until you seen the dentist tomorrow. Did you all catch that??? No tooth and a metal post sticking out.. um.. no. So I say...well Dr. Gomes... I wouldn't mind that so much if I weren't in the middle of a 3-day teacher workshop where I am presenting all day. So he says...well ok.. can you come pick up the parts and take them with you and maybe Dr. Mazur can put it in. SURE... I would love to do that. So I go pick up the parts Monday late afternoon.
When I get home Monday, there is a message from Dr. Mazur's office wanting to know if they can change the time of my appointment because they would like to induce Dr. Mazur's wife. No- please delay the birth of your child to do dental work for me. Well.. turns out, they only needed to move it back 30 minutes to 4:30 so we are still good to go!

******** Tuesday August 1st******************
So... I was so excited all day long that by early evening I should be flipper-free and able to regain normal speech patterns. I could hardly wait to go to the dentist.. you don't hear that one too often. But still a bit nervous about the whole "birth of his child" part of things and decided that was the first question I was going to ask before we started doing anything. So... it’s a bit after 4:30 when I get called back there. I have a recollection of this, because Oprah is still on TV. So... turns out, they are not inducing his wife until Thursday! So that was good news! The bad news was that it turns out that it seemed like I was there until Thursday. Have you ever spent 4 hours in a dentist chair??? People have heart surgery in that amount of time. Yes.. I really was at the dentist office until 8:30 pm last night. I think I watched more TV last night than I have in a few weeks combined. I went from Oprah to Rachael Ray to Jeopardy to Big Brother. Quite the evening of entertainment. But the question you all want to know is... WHY?
Well... it takes a bit of time for impressions to set up. I wish I could say it took 4 hours.. but really it takes about 20 minutes. Dr. Mazur told me he was going to cut up the flipper so it would be easier to make the impression and go from there. Sounds like a good idea. So basically he decides that maybe he should go ahead and put in the abutment before he does the tooth crafting in the lab.. I like that idea too. So turns out he can't get the healing cap off because there is too much tissue in the way... so what do we do.. we laser it away!

**** Gross Part****
That's right... laser trimming of tissue. I'll let your minds wonder a bit on laser burning of gum tissue. There are all sorts of sensory images that should go along with that. And did I mention he had to get me numb to do it too. I don't mind being numb... except when they work on a front tooth and they give you a shot that feels like it is going up your nose and one in the roof of your mouth. Not my favorite.

**** back to the story****
So we put the abutment in... and we have a problem. It heavily favors toward one side of the hole, while it should be centered in the hole... and it is a bit angular pointing toward another tooth. But- you must give Dr. Mazur some credit... he's adventurous. And creative. And spends 2.5-3 hours trying and retrying to craft something that will attach to the ill placed abutment and look semi-normal. It didn’t work.
So now I'm back to the flipper. Yeah... I thought he was going to cut it up in the lab too... But something told him not to do that - probably only by the grace of God did he not do that. So today I love my flipper. I don't care what words I can't say.

But the saga doesn’t end here... we are probably back to square one... which might mean lather, rinse, repeat. Yes, we might have to pull out the implant, grow some bone, and start all over again. There's a chance of a "better flipper" while we wait. And now I wait for the phone tag to take place again... Mazur to Gomes, Gomes to Me, me to Mazur. I'll keep you all posted!