To pull, or not to pull

Woke up early today in anticipation of a long visit to the...DENTIST. Such a nice day, isn't it? And for what? A freaking re-canalization of the roots. You read it right, it's a redo. Ugh! If I only knew how everything will go under the drill, I would have postponed it. Anyway, I felt brave enough to actually go through it again so I went ahead.

As soon as I got to the clinic, I was ushered in to a private room. No waiting for ages. Hhhmm...good sign. Maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all.

The procedure was going well and I was psyching myself for a nice meal in a couple of hours, until the last 15 minutes when I hear the dentist and the assistant going:

Dentist: Did I puncture it?
Assistant: Looks like, let me suction it.
Dentist: The bleeding isn't stopping.
Assistant: (drops a plier or something on the floor) Oh!
Dentist: (blebs of sweat forming on his forehead) It's not stopping. I need to x-ray.
Assistant: (hurries out the door and bumps a table full of clangy instruments) Oops, sorry.

To make the long story short, the x-ray showed a 1-2 mm puncture in the middle of the tooth exposing the bed of the gum, which means that the original plan for re-canalization will drastically change. Still with the isolation clamp and bite wedge in my mouth, I was given 4 options on how to proceed:

1. Molar will be cut in half following the puncture site...which means 2 separate crowns will be put instead of 1 = ~$3000
2. Referral to a specialist for puncture cementing and another redo = ~$4000
3. Tooth extraction + permanent implant = ~$4000+++
4. Tooth extraction + braces + permanent bridge = ~$3000

Ugh! I din't really have any choice coz it was already messed up. Even with insurance, I still have to pay a good sum for these procedures. I chose #4 for the sole reason that no insurance in Ontario covers a permanent implant, well, at least mine din't cover it.

The extraction was done in less than a minute and I went out of the clinic literally bleeding and broke.

Such a nice day, really!

Lessons learned:
1. Marry a dentist.
2. Tooth implants are like mistresses. They are more expensive to keep than the original.
3. Dental appointments are life changing indeed.


GTGL8RZ!