Facile Friday - Old #7

If you are squeamish when it comes to blood and dental work, you should probably stay away from this post.

Years ago I had a front tooth that cracked and I had to get the standard root canal and crown for it.  Life was good for this tooth for a long time but over the last 10 years or so, it was having an identity crisis.  The tooth in question was my maxillary right lateral #7.  That is the tooth just to the right of my right front tooth, it’s an incisor and has a pretty tough job to do.  Incisors are there to bite and shovel food  to your waiting molars and the amount of torque that they encounter is enough to tear a good crown right from its base.  That’s what happened to old #7 on multiple occasions and then came the re-cementing.  #7 was re-glued into place about 8 times till finally the dentist broke the bad news to me, it had to be replaced and the options were not cheap.

Here is my first prosthetic #7 that had been cemented and failed multiple times.  

This thing made the rounds of being placed on tables, in the door of my car and in my pocket as it either fell out or I had to take it out so that I wouldn’t swallow it.  I read somewhere that some people get so frustrated that they actually use super glue to hold in a failing crown.  I will honestly say that I considered it but found that a small piece of cotton, or if you are desperate because it is falling out at work, business card, worked to wedge my tooth in enough that it stayed put for a while.  I guess that could be considered a dental home remedy.

It was time for me to make my decision as to how I was going to resolve my dental issue.  Here were the choices I had presented to me.

First was what can be called a “Flipper” because it can be put in and removed quickly, but it really is a kind of temporary and aesthetic fix for a missing tooth or teeth.  I was not happy with the idea of having the ability to remove said flipper nor was I keen on its ability to accidently remove itself.  Option #1 was a NO for now.

The next option was a fixed partial bridge and that required that they harshly abuse two perfectly healthy teeth to anchor the bridge.  I have had issues with my teeth my whole life, but as I have gotten older my dental health has actually improved so malling two healthy teeth was not what I wanted to do………Option #2 was NO for now.

The last option, and the most expensive, was the dental implant.  This option did not require that any other teeth were maimed or destroyed during the process and it was the most secure of the three.  Now I had to make the decision as to how I was going to handle old #7.  Option #1 was really kind of out of my wheelhouse because if I was going to spend lots of money on a dental thingy, it was going to be something that I didn’t have to soak in a glass at night.  I didn’t have the right mindset to be OK with that option at this point in my life.  Option #2 was a lot more expensive than #1 and it required that I sacrifice two happy teeth in the process.  The other thing that I had to contend with for option #2 was the future potential of issues with the two sacrificial teeth and that would mean more money in the future.  That leaves me with option #3, the implant.  Hmmm.  OK so it stands alone and is more expensive than option #2 but not that much more.  Option #3 would not require any more work to be done after it has been completed and in some ways will be more permanent than my actual teeth.  If all my other teeth fall out of my head I know that I will have at least one that isn't going anywhere!  I guess that my decision was made…option #3 it is!

So I made the appointments, yes I used the plural because I had opted to have it all done in one day.  Lucky for all of you out there, I took pictures of the process as I went.

First they extracted the root canal tooth, drilled a hole in my maxilla (upper jaw bone) and screwed in a titanium screw that would eventually accept and secure the permanent crown.  After just over 2 hours here is what I was left with.  A big screw head where old #7 use to be and 2 stitches in there somewhere.

I know it looks really yucky but……it was.  I was so shot up full of Novocain that I didn't feel a thing till it started to wear off and when it did, the discomfort was not as bad as I had imagined. 

I had to go back about 4 hours later in the day to have them fit the temporary falsie so that I didn’t have to have the gap-tooth smile at work.  They had shot me up with extra Novocain before I left but it wore off by the time I went back and the thought of them sticking me with more needles in places that were already sore, made my stomach do little flips.  I opted to proceed sans numbing.  I thought, at first, that a small amount of regret for this decision was creeping in but the painful part only lasted about a minute or so and then subsided so I still think it was better than getting stuck again.  They placed the temporary tooth and here is where I was next.

Still pretty yucky but it can only get better, right?  Well it did, because the next day it looked much better.  

Not so mutilated looking.  It's actually healing pretty fast and looks a little better every day.

Now that I have sufficiently grossed out everyone, I will also tell you that when I was in my 20's I was deathly afraid of dentists.  I didn't go to a dentist without some kind of major anxiety for almost 10 years, so going and having this done willingly, with little or no anxiety, is something I am very proud of.  If you are like me and afraid of dentists, just remember that it is never as bad as you imagine it to be.


I want to thank both my periodontist, Dr. Entin, and my dentist, Dr. Kenfield, for doing a great job and making it as painless as is possible.  I am happy that my tooth is no longer  a runaway and that I am now the robo-mom with the super titanium bite!  

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