The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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11:04am on Friday, 1st November, 2024:
Anecdote
Last year around this time, one of my teeth started to hurt (lower-right 6). It didn't hurt a lot, and it stopped after a week, but I mentioned it to my dentist. He said this can happen as gums get weaker with age, but I should let him know if it recurred. The tooth is capped (one of 13 I had capped some 40 years ago), so an X-ray didn't show anything under the cap. The rest of the tooth seemed fine.
A few weeks ago, it hurt again for a week. It caused pain if I used it or touched it with another tooth, but it was only low-level. It was worse than it had been last year, but as before it stopped after a week.
Then, after another week, it kicked off again. This was bothersome enough to wake me up in the night on one occasion.
I figured I should see the dentist about it, but I had my operation coming up so decided to wait until afterwards. In operations, they put tubes down the throat and I didn't want any work on the tooth undone by this.
Following the operation, the tooth didn't hurt at all. I realised this was bad news. All the antibiotics I'd had pumped into me for the op had worked on the tooth, which meant it wasn't simply decayed under the crown, it was infected.
I went to the dentist yesterday and he did an X-ray. This showed that both the roots were indeed infected. I would either have to have root canal fillings or an extraction. One of the roots was curved, hooking it into the bone, which complicated matters. He needed to consult a specialist to decide whether the tooth could be saved or not.
He duly consulted the specialist, who opined that he couldn't save the tooth and it would have to be pulled. It's coming out on Monday morning.
Wonderful. I actually use that tooth. I'll have to ask if he can stick in an implant or something once it's healed up.
It never rains but it pours.
This getting-old malarkey is no joke.
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