Down in the Mouth

Another day, another dental problem...

I've mentioned previously that I have very bad teeth--both my sister and I have inherited that from our parents, I fear. I have far more dental problems than anyone else I know, and always have. But I've been diligent in my dental care, and after my last checkup found only one tiny cavity that needed filling, I thought I was doing just great.

Then, tonight, a crown fell out.

This isn't one of the crowns done by Dr. Ian Sturn, the absolute best dentist practicing today. No, this was the one adult crown I have that was done by another dentist (whom we'll refer to here as Dr. Crackers) before I discovered Dr. Sturn's office. This crown was a problem from day one. Dr. Crackers took forever to get started after he numbed my mouth, so the novocaine began to wear off before he was finished. When he prepared the tooth, it felt like he was using heavy road construction equipment. The temporary crown sat poorly, and fell out twice. The permanent crown never seemed to sit exactly right, and was always succeptible to pressure, as if it was sitting high.

And while they were doing the crown, they also did a dental checkup, including x-rays, and told me that they had found nothing wrong--my first perfect checkup ever. Only problem was, I had a few cavities... but they had lost my x-rays, and rather than admitting that, the dental hygienist just bluffed that there was nothing else wrong, and that created oodles of problems later on, as you might imagine.

(Oddly enough, I was talking to someone at another store in our shopping center, and she was complaining about the many problems she was having with a crown that she had just had done; I asked her if "Dr. Crackers" was her dentist, by any chance, and she was surprised that I had guessed correctly, since it was the first time she had ever used him. I adivsed her to make it the last...)

Tomorrow, I'll find out if the lost crown has been hiding decay beneath it for weeks or months; I hope not, but it's always possible because the porcelain-on-metal crown would have blocked x-rays that might have revealed such decay. Whatever it is, I trust Dr. Sturn to make it right, and I know he'll be honest and up-front with me about what needs to be done. Ultimately, you can't ask for more from a dentist than that, can you?