{ Toothless...oh so toothless }

(I'm a little perplexed by the Cocaine word)

We interrupt the Summer Days schedule to bring you the story of a toothless wonder.....namely ME.

See on Saturday morning I started getting a bit of pain on my back right tooth, on the bottom. I think it's my molar, but who knows, I'm not a dentist and I really don't know much about teeth other than they help me eat and that is like major for me *teehee*

So anyway, being the mom that I am, I thought "ugh, it's just a little toothache, it will go away, I don't have time for teeth problems"....and I kept on going, trying to ignore it.

Problem is that it didn't go away and it just got progressively worse, to the point where eating was becoming a pain. I was feeling throbbing on the side of my face and it was just really bothering me.

I tried to hold off until the first of June because our dental insurance is not really that great and I knew that I would be paying a LOT to get this taken care of.

Let me just say that at my last appointment a few weeks ago the doctor had talked about a crown and root canal and something something which I blocked out as the dollar signs started flashing before my eyes, and not in a YAY I just hit the jackpot kinda way...more like in a "dangit we're going to be broke and eating ramen noodle for a couple of months".

But by this morning, I could not bear it anymore and if you've been through toothache before, you KNOW it's got to be one of the most irritating things ever, right up there with standing behind someone in line when they seem to have bought the whole store....OR....going outside to turn off your sprinkler and slipping on the wet ground with your flip flops and doing a matrix move in front of the neighborhood....OR.....well, you get my drift.

I made the call and was lucky to get an appointment this afternoon.

Dentist tried to tell me I needed a crown and maybe a root canal, but see she wouldn't know that until she got in there and when I asked how much was this going to cost me out of pocket, she gave me a paper. $574 just for the crown, more for the root canal. WHAT?!?!?!?!?

Yeah, um, NO, I am not rich and I don't have money growing on trees, there is no way I can afford that right now. So I asked for other options and was told, a temporary crown WHICH the insurance company doesn't cover because you know, it's temporary and it can break or fall off or explode.

It came down to, either paying $574 OR paying the $574 PLUS the root canal cost, OR, paying a ludicrous amount for a temporary crown.

That's when I said "PULL IT".

Of course she gave me the cock eyed look and tried to talk me out of it, but really, I'm about to turn 36 years old, this tooth is all the way in the back, it's not in the front and it's just a pain anymore. Just pull the thing, I won't miss it. And it's not like it's one of my front teeth or I'm a young spring chicken looking for a husband. I just want it gone.

So she did and after doing so told me that there was pus forming in there which meant an abscess forming AND a root canal if we hadn't done it.

Score for me.

So here I am, the numbing finally having left my mouth and face and now all I feel is pain, but a good kind of pain. It's a relief just knowing that it's gone and it won't bother me anymore, it also doesn't hurt that I have antibiotics and vicodin. Yes, I think I'll be ok.

There was talk Dry Socket and all that non fun stuff, so I'm just going to be really careful and pray that doesn't go there.

Moral of the story.....well, there really isn't one, other than instead of $574, I paid $54 and I'm very happy.