On Crowns and Floss


One can dream, right? See the whole thing
So earlier I hinted I got some dental work done. Yep. Yesterday I got a crown. Or, at least, a temporary cap until the crown gets put on in a couple weeks.
How crowns work is like this: they grind down your old tooth enamel, place a ball of some jelly-like substance that smells like acetone in your mouth, form the hardened smelly substance into a temporary cap (I’m told it’s actually the same stuff fake nails are made out of, some sort of acrylic), take the cap out, take an impression for the crown, and then glue the temporary cap back in place. My next appointment is in three weeks, when I get my permanent crown put in. I’m assuming I have to wait that long because they’re doing all sorts of fancy work to get it made up. Or it could just be that my dentist is busy.
The crown is actually on a tooth other than the one I got my root canal done on (though that needs one too). It’s tooth 30 on this chart (my root canal was 18). I verified with the dentist that it was necessary; he assured me it was. I guess the enamel had worn down quite a bit (though I was in no pain yet). The tooth looked only mildly different than the others in the pano x-ray, which was on display beside the dental chair. Needless to say I’ve hit the upper limit of my dental coverage for this year, so I’m probably going to be a bit more hesitant about future visits.
I wasn’t going to write about the cap, except that, tonight, while flossing, it came off. How’s that for drama? Sure hope the real things stays put a little better.
Update, 9:21am: I have a noon appointment to get it glued back in. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to floss near it — that’s the first time I’ve been told I floss TOO much ๐Ÿ™‚


Comments

3 responses to “On Crowns and Floss”

  1. neil Avatar

    I saw a show on how some dentists down there have attended seminars to make the most money off of people. Better watch out for your teeth, or they’ll steal all your gold ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. that is a ridicuhuge monitor, do you have to turn your head to see the whole thing while you are working?

  3. Haha…. I only *wish* that was my monitor ๐Ÿ™‚ That photo was taken while I was at the Apple Store in Tampa back in February. And yes, you did have to turn your head.