Told ya so!

Surprise, surprise!

I went to the dentist yesterday afternoon, and after taking a few x-rays, it was discovered that I've got two cavities on the teeth which sandwich the crowned tooth that I thought was the culprit of my mouth discomfort.

Oh, but it gets better.

One of the teeth already has a ton of silver filling, so it's my dentist's recommendation to get all of that yucky amalgam out of that tooth and crown it. The cavity on the other tooth is small and there are no existing fillings, so I'll get a partial crown - I believe he called it an inlay.

But, before all that fun can begin, I need to get the wisdom tooth behind all these others yanked. There's a wee bit of decay on it as well (of course!) so my dentist suggested having it removed, since sometimes oral surgeons aren't very careful around dental fixtures. So, I don't want to risk having the oral surgeon mess up the permanent crown on the tooth in front of it.

Have I ever mentioned how incredibly much I hate the dentist and the fact that I inherited my family's soft teeth?

I'm going for a consultation with the oral surgeon on Tuesday afternoon, and I'm petrified. My last experience with a tooth extraction was when I was seven, and I vividly remember - almost 30 years later - how the dentist told me to shut up when I informed him my mouth wasn't numb yet. He pulled the tooth anyway, without waiting any longer for the Novacaine to take effect, with a nurse on either side of me holding me down in the chair. My poor grandmother could hear my screams from the waiting room! Oh, but my mouth was finally numb by the time I left the office. Thanks for waiting, doc.

Just as I suspected (and expected), there IS something much more insidious and expensive lurking just below the surface.

Ah, yes. So, now I'll be, quite literally, a poor saneless person by the time this ordeal is finished.

I can't wait.