It all started back in December 2007. I had a little cavity below the gum line. My dentist said he could fix it easily. After 2 straight hours of working on it he was able to finish it. It should have healed in about 3 to 5 days, but it took almost 4 weeks in my case and I did not push the issue, because it always seemed to be getting better. (Rhonda kept on telling me to go in just to check it out. Not me I can take a little pain and it did seem to heal.) Over the next four months I took it easy on the tooth, because if you bit down to hard on it is hurt, just a bit.

Now it’s about 4 months later. While walking through the Aeroseum yesterday I was chewing on some food that made my tooth feel like it was on fire. Not good. I washed the food away and everything was ok. Hmm…I don’t like where this is going.

So this morning I decide to make sure my teeth are clean and brush them like normal. However, when the brush ran across the tooth where the complicated cavity was filled, a large chunk of the tooth broke away. This is just plain painful. Ouch.

After spending some time getting the bleeding to stop, the cavity went below the gum line and thus the gums bled some when the chunk broke away, I immediately emailed Rhonda to have her ask around the office for any great dentists. I had three offers, but with the first two I could not get in until tomorrow. I did think I could make it until then. Then one of Rhonda’s co-worker suggested the Swedish public dental services. She got me an appointment with them while I was on the phone with the others.

At 15:00 today I went to my appointment only 3 block away from the apartment. Insurance does not work here so I had to use my credit card to make a generic payment just for stepping in. No problem. At that point they could have charged me a thousand dollars and that would have been great if they could get the pain to subside. I’ll do anything. Please help.

Ok, so I get into the office and I really wish I could speak and understand Swedish now more than ever.  However, my dentist knew a little English and that proved to be enough. She first thought that it was just going to be a temporary filling to be installed. Upon testing the area I almost exploded out of my chair when she hit the exposed area with the tools. She then said my gum might be a little bit infected. Ok. So she injected me with a bit of topical pain killer. That worked ok until she sprayed something like an antiseptic on it. That was extremely painful and I could not take that anymore. I think she suspected something was very wrong. She immediately injected me about 10 times all around the side of my mouth with pain killer. Finally, I could concentrated again. They then took an x-ray and when they came back several people were discussing the results. She then asked me if I knew any Swedish and I said no. She ended up telling me my root was very infected and my gum tissue under the tooth was very infected. She immediately proceeded to do a root canal to release the pressure inside the tooth and also used some sort of antiseptic/cleaner around the tooth to start the gum to heal.

After 2 hours I was finished and scheduled my permanent crown for April 15th.

I just now need to take care of the tooth and gum and hope the gum heals well.

Looking back I should have went back to my dentist in December and complained about the little pain and slow healing. I think he would have seen the filling failed. He could have fixed it then instead of me letting it get the cracks filled by food over the last several months.

Exposed gums and broken edges of teeth are extremely painful and it gets worse when you aggravate it with an infected root and gum below the tooth. For as much as I don’t like going to the dentist I’m extremely thankful they are good at what they do. The Swedish doctor was excellent and at this time things look good for everything to heal.

Chad

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