Pain in the…………Mouth!!!!
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007Well, it has been hectic for the pass 2 days. My days started from 5am in the morning till 8 - 9pm at night. It was quite an experience. Have done things that I have never done before. Have felt certain emotions that I have not felt before. Well, at the end of the day, its a job that I have to do. No matter what, people’s life are affected and we can’t deny the fact that at the end of the day, he or she is still somebody else’s son or daughter, somebody else’s dad and mum. I guess we have to exercise our initiatives at certain times.
OK, to elaborate on the title of my blog. Pain! Pain! Pain! Yes! I had a root canal done on my molar several years back. Since then, it has been giving me problems. Periodically, the gum around the tooth would become red and hurts very badly. Everytime, I would go to my usual dentist for treatment.
This time round, the gum got red and painful again. I ignored it for a week. The pain did subside but the gum started to swell up. It felt like there is pus building up in the bulge. It was so painful that I could not bite.
However, I still got to eat. I bored with the pain and ate as usual. I think sometime last week, the bulge burst and the pus started flowing out of the gum. I thought the flow would just stop after awhile. But… No!!!! I kept squeezing pus out of the bulge for the next few days.
Finally, I got so fed up with it last Sunday that I went to another dentist for a check up. The dentist took an X-ray and told me this "Your root canal that was done the last time was not successful. The entire tooth is infected on the inside. That’s why you have the swelling and pus build-up. The infection is eating away your jaw bone also. You would have to remove the tooth."
I was like "WTF!!!" I spent almost $1K to get the root canal done and now I have to take the whole tooth out. What are my options after taking it out then?
1) Nothing - However, the adjacent teeth would start to slant towards each other in time to come. But… FOC!!!
2) Dentures - So passe!!! Cheap though.
3) Bridging - I would have to file off my adjacent teeth, build a bridge with the 2 teeth and insert a replacement in between. Around $1.5k. But, I would be sacrificing my 2 good teeth!!! NO NO NO!!!!
4) Tooth implant - Most expensive $3.5k. However, I would be able to claim part of it using medisave. I think I can claim around $1.2k - $1.3K.
Sigh… I have to decide within the next few months. As if I delay further, the adjacent would start to slant towards each other. By then, I would not have a space in-between the adjacent teeth to insert any replacement tooth. How? Which one should I choose… Help me…..
