Imagine coming in on final to Salt Lake International and suddenly your back molar screams with pain. Every foot of descent is more and more agony. After grabbing your luggage you feel every heart beat in your jaw that is simply on fire. When you get home you find some left over pain med’s that you never used and swallow them like candy. The next day you beeline for your dentist, open the door of his office, and beg to have some relief.
Now the tooth in question has had a gold crown on it for nearly 35 years (my teeth suck because I was born in Japan and didn’t get the right food for good teeth) and the dentist took me into his exam room and had an assistant take an x-ray of the area. All you could see from the x-ray was a solid light spot where the gold crown was.
After shooting me not one, not twice, but four times to get numb, he then broke three drill bits trying to get through the gold crown on the tooth. Finally he broke through and the pressure that had built up on the plane trip was relived There was infection under the crown, and this needed to be overcome before any further dental work could proceed. He packed the tooth with cotton so the stuff underneath could seep out and not build up pressure.
He prescribed antibiotics and pain med’s until I could see someone about a root canal. I was fine as long as I was on the pain pills, and continued working. I then was promoted to our Park City Store, and drove up Parleys. On return I experienced the same shooting pain as before. After double doses of pain meds I was able to sleep for few hours. The next day I worked up in Park City and coming back down to Salt Lake the pain was unbearable.
Going into my garage I selected a pair of needle nose vice grips and locked onto the tooth. On the count of three I used all my strength and the crown and tooth broke off at the gum line. Remarkably the pain diminished and looking into the Gold crown was black icky gook. Several salt water mouth washes later I actually felt normal again. I called my dentist the next morning and told him what I had done. There was total silence on his end, and he finally said in all my years of dental work, I have never had a patient extract their own tooth with vice grips.
He said the tooth was infected and would either need a root canal or extracted. However because the tooth was broken off at the gum line, I would need to seek a specialist. Numerous calls to five different surgeons I found one that would at least see me, but I might have to wait hours for a break. I drove down to South Jordan and waited nearly three hours. The doctor finally had a break, and examined my tooth. He said the tooth could not be saved, and needed to come out before additional infection or problems occurred. I said great lets get it out right now. He asked if I had come alone and I said yes. He said that he would normally perform the surgery under IV, but since I drove myself, the only thing he could offer me was local and gas.
Once I was numb he started the procedure forgetting about the gas, but I didn’t care. I wanted the tooth out at all costs. Several tools were required to get the tooth out and because it was in such bad condition it came out in three pieces.
He sutured up the area, and we are making plans on inserting a titanium screw and bone graft, along with an implant tooth to fill the obvious gap.
So this has been my past month. A month of pure hell, and I have a bone graft and screw to look forward too.
Keep in mind during this period I was heavily medicated and not fully normal. So I ask for some consideration, about some of the things I may have said or posted.
Ouch,
Captain Mark
