YCGL - January 2, 2024 - A Mouth Full of Miracles!!!

This picture has nothing to do with the following story, I just didn't want the big blowup picture to be the one at the bottom.  You'll understand why at the end.

But it does kind of represent the way I felt when I found out it would work,

This isn't about travel, but I'm so happy about it that I want people to know, and maybe learn something about Falsies, ughhhh, false teeth.  

I think my story starts about three years ago, but it may have been two years or four, I really don't remember, which is probably a good thing.  In January of 202X, I had two teeth pulled and get prepared to have an implant put in.  One tooth did fine, and I got a lower left incisor in April or May.  However, the upper left second molar didn't set well, it slipped when the oral surgeon put a torque on the implant, so it was May or June before I got that procedure completed.  Overall, I've been pretty pleased with my new teeth.  

Untillll.....

The afternoon of the 30th, I was eating a bucket of popcorn at a men's basketball game when I inadvertently bit down on an old-maid, an unpopped kernel.  One of my left molars.  And I had this strange sound that wasn't a crunch.  It was like a pull or a pop.  But nothing else.  By that evening, my left molars were beginning to ache.  The next day, I wasn't sure if the tooth was broken or dislodged.  I called my dentist and left a message on their answering machine.  New Year's day, I got a message saying to come into the office on Thursday, the 2nd at 2:00.  But I got to learn the severity that evening, when the tooth and little stem fell out.  Soooo, that was a couple of thousand bucks down the drain.  I kept my dental appointment to see what she would advise.  

When I got to the office, I was pretty sure that I would have to get used to the hole missing the second and third molars would leave.  I gave the assistant my tooth and relayed the story to her.  She took an x-ray of my jaw, and got both back to the dentist.  Doctor Welper came out and after a few pleasantries ("Happy New Year, etc.), she said "That was very unusual, in fact, I've never seen this happen before."  I was confused, and she went on, "I've never seen the stud unscrew itself when the plug in the tooth had not come out."  I'm still not sure what she was saying.  I was still thinking that the implant was loose or out and that there wasn't anything she could do.  "Oh, no, the implant is just fine.  The stud holding the "tooth" in place unscrewed itself from the implant and I can just screw it back into place."   She said she would take a picture of my jaw and I could see the implant itself.  She got the screw in place inside the tooth and using her little tiny torque wrench, tightened the tooth right back into place.  Just like that!  She took a subsequent x-ray and showed me that result.  

And I'll show you.  I understand that some of you may be squemish about seeing these pictures, so I'll put them way down the page so if you don't want to see them, stop here.  Just know, the tooth is working fine and in fact, I went right from the dentist's office to celebrate with some tacos for lunch.  

I'm really happy!!!  Ok, quit reading now if you don't want to go further....  Bye, Bye.  

Here is the final x-ray.  I have a ceramic crown on the first molar and then the ceramic tooth for the second molar.  The thing that looks like a tall bee hive is the implant with the ridges around it to make it rigid.  If you look carefully, you can actually see the screw that is holding the tooth in place inside the implant.  That's what had unscrewed itself and fallen out.  The next picture is a photograph of the implant buried in the jaw.  It's a little graphic, but its really neat.  

If you look carefully here, you can see the screw threads down in the socket.  

That little piece of metal cost several thousand dollars and I'm pleased as punch 

that it is still there!!!  Thank God!  Thanks, God!

I really kept wondering why it didn't hurt more.  I've taken four Tylenol since it happened.  It's because it was never dislodged!

YCGL - December 30, 2024 - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!