The Dentist

This is a really boring post about my tooth pain and dentist appointments... so feel free to skip this post. I write this for my own record.

This last Sunday afternoon, I started feeling pain in my mouth. It wasn't constant but when it was there it was pretty damn painful. It was painful enough and often enough that on Monday afternoon, I called to make a dentist appointment. Since I do not have dental insurance or a job right now, it was a hard to convince myself that I wanted to call, but ultimately decided it was important although I knew it would be expensive. (I actually have a job lined up but I'm waiting for a security clearance and I have no idea how long that will take. But that's a story for another day.)

I set up my appointment for Wednesday morning. Honestly it was hard waiting to go to the dentist from Monday afternoon until Wednesday because I was in quite a bit of pain and pain killers were not helping me. I went to my appointment and the dentist told me I needed a root canal and a crown and she prescribed me antibiotics to help with the infection in my mouth as well as the pain. I know it takes time for antibiotics to kick in, but it never really helped with the pain. 

I set up an appointment with an endodontics office to get my root canal done. I had it scheduled for today, but I was in so much pain and since nothing was helping with the pain, I moved the appointment to yesterday. Thankfully the office had availability on such short notice. 

I went to that appointment and the dentist told me it was worse than she thought and I might have to get my tooth pulled and an implant. She said she would take a closer look at it and see if she thought getting a root canal was worth it. I started bawling at this point and couldn't stop. I felt bad, but I was so overwhelmed with how much this was all going to cost and the thought of being in pain longer that I couldn't help but cry. 

But thankfully when she looked at my tooth closer, she determined that I could get the root canal. I was glad mainly because I was worried about having to deal with the pain for another day (since I would have to go to an oral surgeon to get a tooth pulled) and I know the recovery from getting a tooth pulled is harder than a root canal. I guess getting a tooth pulled is cheaper than a root canal but also getting an implant is super expensive. 

Why do I tell this story? Honestly I don't really know. But I will say that it is super expensive to go the dentist without insurance. (I know it can be expensive with insurance too, but man oh man without insurance it's painful). Although it's going to be expensive for all of my procedures, I think it's worth it because the pain was really bad, it was getting hard to eat and it would've just kept getting worse if I didn't do anything. 

Also, take care of your teeth. It may seem annoying at times, brushing multiple times a day, flossing, getting regular teeth check ups etc but it's worth it if you don't get cavities or need a root canal or other such dental procedures.