This tooth is jinxed
In the past I've said this tooth is charmed because of my luck avoiding really major problems, but now I think the damn thing is just jinxed. Either way, my patience is really starting to wear thin.
For those who don't know the full history: back in 1997 I had some serious problems with my back teeth. The bottom wisdom teeth erupted at a literal 90-degree angle, impacting with the second molars and creating pockets that couldn't be cleaned out by brushing. Had I been visiting a dentist regularly this probably would have been caught and corrected in a less painful fashion, but I wasn't. As it was, the decay eventually rotted the back sides of both second molars and the right one got infected, which caused a great deal of pain and required a root canal to fix. The left molar was decayed to the point that the pulp chamber was exposed, but somehow did not get infected, so the endodontist referred me back to my regular dentist for a pulp cap and restoration. After that I had to go visit a surgeon to have all four wisdom teeth extracted, which was its own unique flavor of hell.
The sockets from the extracted teeth healed up just fine, and the molar that had been root canaled is still holding together without any problems, but the saga of the left 2nd molar was far from over. Over the course of the next 15 years, the filling in that tooth cracked or outright broke in half several times. Every time my dentist had to do a pulp cap procedure to disinfect the area and then redo the filling, taking away more enamel each time. She kept advising me that it was getting to the point where a crown might be necessary, but we were both reluctant to do that because of the risk of the still-live tooth getting infected after a crown procedure (thus requiring an endodontist to drill through the crown and making the whole thing even more expensive than it already was).
Last month the filling broke again, exposing the nerve yet again. Once again my dentist performed a restoration as best she could, but we both agreed that this time the issue had been forced: there was no longer enough tooth enamel to be considered structurally stable. So we started the paperwork for getting a crown put in. Once that was approved I went back and spent a less-than-pleasant hour getting the tooth filed down (that nerve is overly sensitive and hard to deaden completely) and temp-capped. After that it was two weeks of eating very carefully (and dealing with an uneven bite), and last Saturday I went back in to have the new crown put on.
This proved to be quite a bit more challenging than the first crown was. Every time we did a test fit my bite was too high and the thing would pop off very easily, so she had to file the crown down repeatedly until it was little more than a lumpy flat surface on top. It reached the point where she also started using a bur to file down the upper 2nd molar a bit -- which, I should mention, is also skewed to one side because the top wisdom tooth was mashing against its roots before it was extracted. Even that didn't completely resolve the bite issue; I could still feel the back teeth on the left making contact before the right. Finally she gave up and cemented the crown in place anyway, arguing that she didn't want to take any more metal off the crown and it would probably settle a little bit once the cement hardened, and if the bite was still a problem to come in and they could fix it.
If I had been a little smarter about this I would have stayed put and said "no, we need to resolve this before I leave today". But the truth is I really wanted to get the hell out of that dentist chair, and after all the temporary crown had settled after a couple days, making for a much more normal bite, so maybe the same would happen here.
Over the course of the next few days it became obvious that the problem was not resolving as it did with the temp crown. That skewed upper molar I mentioned before? One edge was still coming down hard on that flat metal surface and sliding around while my other teeth were trying to make contact, making for a lot of clicking noises while eating and the occasional achy jaw/tooth. I'd planned to call the office today and say "look, this isn't working, we need to fix it".
Last night I was (carefully) chewing some gum, and suddenly I felt a large piece of metal rattling around in my mouth. The damn thing came off. A friend suggested that all that torsion and wobbling from the top tooth sliding around on the crown basically wrecked the cement. Also I know my teeth were chattering a little bit when the original impression was taken; I'm hoping that didn't skew things so that the crown isn't properly meshing with the underlying tooth. (It was, I must note, popping off repeatedly during the paper bite tests. I joked about it at the time but now I wonder.)
I immediately pushed the crown back on as best I could but the underlying tooth almost certainly got exposed to bacteria again. I'm hoping that she'll be able to see me very quickly, because #1) having no crown on that tooth is a really bad idea now, #2) having a large piece of metal in your mouth that could come loose at any moment is also a bad idea, and #3) at the very least the underlying tooth will have to be re-cleaned before the crown can be re-cemented.
I am really, really, REALLY getting sick of this damned tooth.
Just got off the phone with the dentist's office a couple minutes ago and they agreed that this is an emergency, so I'll be going there in about 30 minutes. And this time I'm not leaving that damn chair until my bite is correct.
***
UPDATE 11:10am -- This has now gone from frustrating/annoying to just plain bizarre. I went in and explained the situation to my dentist, she put a couple gauze pieces in and tried to pull the crown out... and it wouldn't come out. She got the forceps and gave it a good pull, to the point it started to hurt... and it still didn't come out. Apparently when I jammed the thing back in I did my job a little too well. Maybe because I have more upper body strength than she does, I have no idea, but the thing just wouldn't come out. She told me she'd seen a couple dental cases like this where a permanent crown popped off, the patient jammed it back on, and it never gave them any trouble again afterward. I voiced my concerns about the tooth underneath possibly being exposed to bacteria but her opinion is that if the crown was only off for a few seconds (which it was, and also my mouth was reasonably clean from the gum) then that wouldn't be long enough for bacteria to get any kind of dangerous foothold. She actually asked me if I wanted to try chewing some gum again and I mentioned I had some out in the car, but in the end we just decided to play the wait-and-watch game, and if it does pop off again to come right back in... well, except while she's out for Thanksgiving anyway. I relayed my theory that this tooth was either charmed or jinxed and she thought that was funny.
Another crazy thing about this? After she did all that pulling by hand and with the forceps, I think my bite actually improved.
Weird. Just... weird.
If she ever contributes to a book on dental procedures maybe I can get her to include my case as an interesting anecdote.
For those who don't know the full history: back in 1997 I had some serious problems with my back teeth. The bottom wisdom teeth erupted at a literal 90-degree angle, impacting with the second molars and creating pockets that couldn't be cleaned out by brushing. Had I been visiting a dentist regularly this probably would have been caught and corrected in a less painful fashion, but I wasn't. As it was, the decay eventually rotted the back sides of both second molars and the right one got infected, which caused a great deal of pain and required a root canal to fix. The left molar was decayed to the point that the pulp chamber was exposed, but somehow did not get infected, so the endodontist referred me back to my regular dentist for a pulp cap and restoration. After that I had to go visit a surgeon to have all four wisdom teeth extracted, which was its own unique flavor of hell.
The sockets from the extracted teeth healed up just fine, and the molar that had been root canaled is still holding together without any problems, but the saga of the left 2nd molar was far from over. Over the course of the next 15 years, the filling in that tooth cracked or outright broke in half several times. Every time my dentist had to do a pulp cap procedure to disinfect the area and then redo the filling, taking away more enamel each time. She kept advising me that it was getting to the point where a crown might be necessary, but we were both reluctant to do that because of the risk of the still-live tooth getting infected after a crown procedure (thus requiring an endodontist to drill through the crown and making the whole thing even more expensive than it already was).
Last month the filling broke again, exposing the nerve yet again. Once again my dentist performed a restoration as best she could, but we both agreed that this time the issue had been forced: there was no longer enough tooth enamel to be considered structurally stable. So we started the paperwork for getting a crown put in. Once that was approved I went back and spent a less-than-pleasant hour getting the tooth filed down (that nerve is overly sensitive and hard to deaden completely) and temp-capped. After that it was two weeks of eating very carefully (and dealing with an uneven bite), and last Saturday I went back in to have the new crown put on.
This proved to be quite a bit more challenging than the first crown was. Every time we did a test fit my bite was too high and the thing would pop off very easily, so she had to file the crown down repeatedly until it was little more than a lumpy flat surface on top. It reached the point where she also started using a bur to file down the upper 2nd molar a bit -- which, I should mention, is also skewed to one side because the top wisdom tooth was mashing against its roots before it was extracted. Even that didn't completely resolve the bite issue; I could still feel the back teeth on the left making contact before the right. Finally she gave up and cemented the crown in place anyway, arguing that she didn't want to take any more metal off the crown and it would probably settle a little bit once the cement hardened, and if the bite was still a problem to come in and they could fix it.
If I had been a little smarter about this I would have stayed put and said "no, we need to resolve this before I leave today". But the truth is I really wanted to get the hell out of that dentist chair, and after all the temporary crown had settled after a couple days, making for a much more normal bite, so maybe the same would happen here.
Over the course of the next few days it became obvious that the problem was not resolving as it did with the temp crown. That skewed upper molar I mentioned before? One edge was still coming down hard on that flat metal surface and sliding around while my other teeth were trying to make contact, making for a lot of clicking noises while eating and the occasional achy jaw/tooth. I'd planned to call the office today and say "look, this isn't working, we need to fix it".
Last night I was (carefully) chewing some gum, and suddenly I felt a large piece of metal rattling around in my mouth. The damn thing came off. A friend suggested that all that torsion and wobbling from the top tooth sliding around on the crown basically wrecked the cement. Also I know my teeth were chattering a little bit when the original impression was taken; I'm hoping that didn't skew things so that the crown isn't properly meshing with the underlying tooth. (It was, I must note, popping off repeatedly during the paper bite tests. I joked about it at the time but now I wonder.)
I immediately pushed the crown back on as best I could but the underlying tooth almost certainly got exposed to bacteria again. I'm hoping that she'll be able to see me very quickly, because #1) having no crown on that tooth is a really bad idea now, #2) having a large piece of metal in your mouth that could come loose at any moment is also a bad idea, and #3) at the very least the underlying tooth will have to be re-cleaned before the crown can be re-cemented.
I am really, really, REALLY getting sick of this damned tooth.
Just got off the phone with the dentist's office a couple minutes ago and they agreed that this is an emergency, so I'll be going there in about 30 minutes. And this time I'm not leaving that damn chair until my bite is correct.
***
UPDATE 11:10am -- This has now gone from frustrating/annoying to just plain bizarre. I went in and explained the situation to my dentist, she put a couple gauze pieces in and tried to pull the crown out... and it wouldn't come out. She got the forceps and gave it a good pull, to the point it started to hurt... and it still didn't come out. Apparently when I jammed the thing back in I did my job a little too well. Maybe because I have more upper body strength than she does, I have no idea, but the thing just wouldn't come out. She told me she'd seen a couple dental cases like this where a permanent crown popped off, the patient jammed it back on, and it never gave them any trouble again afterward. I voiced my concerns about the tooth underneath possibly being exposed to bacteria but her opinion is that if the crown was only off for a few seconds (which it was, and also my mouth was reasonably clean from the gum) then that wouldn't be long enough for bacteria to get any kind of dangerous foothold. She actually asked me if I wanted to try chewing some gum again and I mentioned I had some out in the car, but in the end we just decided to play the wait-and-watch game, and if it does pop off again to come right back in... well, except while she's out for Thanksgiving anyway. I relayed my theory that this tooth was either charmed or jinxed and she thought that was funny.
Another crazy thing about this? After she did all that pulling by hand and with the forceps, I think my bite actually improved.
Weird. Just... weird.
If she ever contributes to a book on dental procedures maybe I can get her to include my case as an interesting anecdote.