Tuesday, October 06, 2015

Ow, Dammit, Ow

     Some time last week, Tuesday or Wednesday, I "bit" down on a granola-type bar with the toothless gum where my upper left back teeth would be, if I had any.

     That's the approximate place where, almost twenty years ago, a tooth root punched all the way through the bone and not quite into my sinus cavity, setting off years of pain, tooth loss and dental/medical maladventure.  Despite rather a lot of well-intentioned surgical intervention, the bone underneath my gum tissue there is rough and sharp, and when you apply pressure--

     Well, it's a problem.  It tears up the gum tissue from the inside out and that seems to be what has happened now.  It hurts a lot.  I take OTC pain meds but it hasn't stopped hurting; in fact, the tissue in that area is swollen and tender and there's a nasty little spot at the center of the scar that feels like it's a sore.  From past experience, I don't think there's anything much to be done except apply "the tincture of time" and try not to be too uncomfortable, but it sure does hurt.  It sets off the whole ears ringing, ears hurting, eye hurting migraine-like mess and I find myself moving kind of slowly and carefully.hoping to keep it all down to a dull roar.

     There's an engineering conference to get to this morning starting plenty early and miles away from my dentist's, or I'd go bother her.  As it is, I'll hazard a phone call about their opening time today.

5 comments:

Countglockula said...

Sorry to hear this!

I'm mostly toothless now and anyone who thinks tooth pain will completely disappear after an extraction is plumb loco. Even though the vacant space re-fills with tissue over time, it can remain tender for years afterwords. Sometimes forever.

Get your tooth doc to take a look at it. You could have trouble under there that time and ibuprofen can't fix.

Raz

Anonymous said...

Raz wrote:

"anyone who thinks tooth pain will completely disappear after an extraction is plumb loco."

Yep. Had the same... An oral surgeon a number of years later explained that when the nerve pathways get so used to transmitting a continuous pain signal, removing the tooth doesn't fully stop the nerve, it tends to 'echo' the original pain (phantom pain like amputees get). To this day I get toothache 'twinges'.

And Bobbie:

25 years back I had a root canal(molar) that was botched. Years later the tooth finally failed and was pulled.

Like yours, the rough bone surface made for *very* tender gums. I lived with that for a number of years until the others deteriorated and I finally had them out in one shot using that 'twilight' anesthesia. Rather surreal feeling the bone being ground down smooth and not feeling the pain. (I sure felt it once the anesthesia wore off, thank God for Oxycodone!)

The good news, bad news. Yes, they probably can fix it, I have no pain now except for occasional 'phantom toothache' pain.

The 'final solution' for mine put 3,000 bucks in the oral surgeon's pocket (I had on insurance at the time...) I got to pay it off over time, though.

Hang in there. :)

Anonymous said...

EDIT -

Should read - (I had no insurance at the time...)

Ken said...

Sorry for your trouble, ma'am.

Roberta X said...

Guys, this is something that has been an issue for a couple of *decades.* I have had a *lot* of surgery in that area, from specialist D.D.S. and M.D. folks. There's no fixing it.