First appointment next Wednesday

[Root6dee6]

Have you tried headphones to dull the sounds? That might help a bit.
When I was younger I had fillings on my front bottoms. They looked just fine until of course I ruined them growing up.

 

[themombat]

Thanks, I'm glad to hear they shouldn't look weird! I don't know what I thought, like they were going to give me a big metal grill? Heh. And I can totally see that the shot in the front is sort of a good trade-off for not having all that stuff in my mouth, I hate that, too. Today I had to do the "bite on the paper" thing a whole bunch and GAG, it was yucky!

I have my ipod, I take it with me, and it helps. Before my last appointment, when I had the crown prep, I couldn't find my ipod and I was totally flipping out. Thankfully I did find it at the last moment. I play all my punk rock songs from my youth, very loud. I joked to my husband that I'm likely to be deaf before this is all done!

 

[Root6dee6]

What is it about bite-wings that make us gag? I never gagged until I had to bite on one of those and my gag reflex took off from there. BAD bite wings BAD!!

 

[themombat]

Bitewings are definitely bad. At my daughter's dentist, they do digital x-rays. You still have a thing in your mouth, but it's a little plastic thing, way better than the paper x-ray things, I think.

What bugged me today was the articulating paper, which is like carbon paper. They put it between your teeth and it makes little marks so they can check your bite, when placing a crown and stuff. It's just a tiny piece of sort of plasticy paper, but I had to bite on it a bunch of times today and it was icky.

 

[mghstl]

My only big, ugly, nasty filling was on a front eye tooth. It was the last procedure in a long, long, intense journey. But it was the most obvious flaw in my smile, so it meant the most to me to have fixed. The top 1/2 of my tooth well into the gumline was a big, black crater. Yes, the novocain was little bit more of a "zing" than in the back of my mouth, but that's all it was...a momentary "zing". And now...wow...only my dentist would "know for sure" that that tooth was filled (remember Clairol ads??).
You're doing so great.
You're doing so great.
You're doing so great!!!
Hugs, and happy turkey day.

 

[RP]

Wish I had a nickle (well my dentist got thousands and thousands of nickels from me) for every peice of blue carbon paper I bit on, a whole year of monthly or bimonthly bite adjustments for the TMJ, then the crowns......geesh. Not so bad, really, but he was such a perfectionist with the bite, and as soon as it was off- headache time. Oh well. I'm holding until January. No blue paper for the front........ just lots of blue light as it is cured in layered.


j

Bitewings are definitely bad. At my daughter's dentist, they do digital x-rays. You still have a thing in your mouth, but it's a little plastic thing, way better than the paper x-ray things, I think.

What bugged me today was the articulating paper, which is like carbon paper. They put it between your teeth and it makes little marks so they can check your bite, when placing a crown and stuff. It's just a tiny piece of sort of plasticy paper, but I had to bite on it a bunch of times today and it was icky.

 

[themombat]

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling better about not having funky-looking fillings in the front! I have a big cavity in an eye tooth, too. Thankfully you can't see it unless I pull up my lip, but I always worry about it anyway, it's so ugly. I'll be glad when it's fixed and I don't have to look at it anymore.

I think part of me is still sort of not believing that I'm actually getting this done! Like, I worried and worried for so long, all those dark days when I thought I would never be able to fix my teeth, I would just look progressively worse. The night I finally broke down with my husband, I was crying that how was I going to raise our daughter when I was going to be toothless and too embarrassed to leave the house?! Well thank goodness THAT isn't happening!

 

[Root6dee6]

Feels good doesn't it? I mean, once you get it sorted you'll see what so many of us have been saying.... it was "easy". I"m sure I'll still have my nervous moments for my other stuff but I'm so seeing the future much brighter and happier now.

I'm only 2 days into my 1st appointment and I plum forgot what pink gums look like! I keep going back in the mirror and looking at my pink gums... all that black barnacle like stuff is GONE!! I'm absolutely loving it. I'm so super anxious to get the tops done now to match and I'm sure you'll feel just as eager.

Go you.... you'll be so proud of yourself once it's done!

 

[themombat]

Woot! Go me! Like mghstl, I had a big ugly cavity on the front of an eye tooth at the gum line. I thought we were going to do my two front teeth today, but we went for the eye tooth instead. I survived the front of the mouth injection and whoa, it was weird because half my nose was numb And because the cavity went below the gum line a bit, there was a lot of bleeding, which was gross and I still haven't brushed my teeth tonight, I'm a little nervous, it's very tender. And everyone was right, it doesn't look weird at all, it totally just looks like a tooth and I'm SO happy to have that ugly thing gone. I almost cried when I looked at it in the mirror.

My daughter is ten and she's A Rock of Awesome. She comes with me to my appointments, sits at my feet and reads. But she will occasionally pat my foot or wink at me if I can look at her between stuff.

Today in the car, she started a conversation, "Mama, I don't say this to make you feel bad or anything, but I want to tell you I think this is a good lesson for me," and tells me how she sees me going through this, and she's determined to take good care of her teeth, even when she might be scared to go to the dentist.

I don't go back until the second week of January, at which time I'm having another root canal *sigh* It's not the last of the work but it's the last of the awful teeth that drive me crazy, it's broken and there's a sharp bit that scrapes the side of my tongue. I am not, of course, looking forward to the root canal, but I am very much looking forward to not having that awful broken tooth in there anymore!

 

[brit]

Wow sounds like you are doing great and such fast progress too.
Try to view the root canal as a nice long relax... ..seriously....no numbing problems if not infected.

 

[Root6dee6]

Give your daughter a HUGE hug! She sounds so precious!! Wish we had daughters like her.

 

[mghstl]

!!!awesome!!!