The Dentist - Do I HAVE to go?

[Dan Gould]

Tell us how it goes. Good luck!

Well, to make a long story short, this all happened because when I was eight years old, we had recess in the gymnasium (it was rainy) and some snot nosed little shit snuck up behind me, grabbed my ankles and pulled my feet out from underneath me. I came flying down head first into the floor and broke my two front teeth.

Eventually I had root canal done - did anyone else understand that root canal doesn't do anything to the root, it takes out the nerves and that space is filled with some synthetic material? ... and when I was 18 or so I had permanent crowns installed.

So - the weird thing about a dead tooth that has had root canal is that the body actually treats it as foreign material and attacks it. So basically, one of my two dead teeth broke.

The reason that I cannot pinpoint when or how this happened is that the root canal took out all the nerves and that spared me what surely would have been excruciating pain.

SO - I now have the weekend to ponder my options (keep in mind we don't have dental coverage):

A Flipper:

This is a single tooth denture, like Leon Spinks or most hockey players have. The advantage is its very cheap - about $300 or less - the disadvantage is the piece that goes up into the roof of my mouth will almost certainly effect my speech, and as a voice over performer, that isn't going to be good.

a new four tooth bridge:

Basically three crowns plus a pretend tooth to replace the broken one. Main advantage is that it doesn't take as long to complete (about a month probably from removing the broken tooth to installation of the permanent bridge) as the last option:

Implanted Pretend Tooth

The issue here is how much bone is left when the broken tooth is removed and the space heals. If there isn't enough bone to anchor the implant, he may have to graft some in. Bottom line either way is that this takes a great deal more time from start to finish, and I'd be wearing a "flipper" during the interim which might be as much as 8 months.

The latter two options are both in $3000 range. Major OUCH - I guess that makes up for the lack of physical pain so far.

[connoisseur series500]

Think over your options and good luck, Dan.

That snot nosed kid who pulled your legs wasn't Chuck was it?

[Dan Gould]

Think over your options and good luck, Dan.

That snot nosed kid who pulled your legs wasn't Chuck was it?

Only if he was 8 years old in 1973.

[Chuck Nessa]

Think over your options and good luck, Dan.

That snot nosed kid who pulled your legs wasn't Chuck was it?

Only if he was 8 years old in 1973.

Sorry, I was 29 then. I might have done violence on Dan anyway.

Edited April 21, 2007 by Chuck Nessa

[sidewinder]

Implanted Pretend Tooth

The issue here is how much bone is left when the broken tooth is removed and the space heals. If there isn't enough bone to anchor the implant, he may have to graft some in. Bottom line either way is that this takes a great deal more time from start to finish, and I'd be wearing a "flipper" during the interim which might be as much as 8 months.

This is the way I've gone with my own tooth work. It ended up with some synthetic bone graft to make up for material removed in the extraction. Takes about 3-4 months to complete if you have just a small amount of graft or around 8-9 months if you need a more extensive graft with membrane. The technology is definitely there now with the titanium implants.

[Soulstation1]