Teeth suck

I'm putting in a disclaimer. If you get queasy reading about peoples mouth pain, don't continue.

Seriously, teeth suck. I asked my dentist why it seems that I have such horrible luck with my teeth while Coden doesn't and I swear I take just as good care of my teeth (or better) than he does. I'll admit that I'm jealous, yes. He explained to me that teeth are quite different from our bodies in the way that you can change the condition of your body while you can't change the condition of your teeth. For example: if you eat bad food as a kid and you get fat and then decide when you get older to start living a healthy lifestyle then your body is considered in good health. However, if when you're younger you don't take incredible care of your teeth then it doesn't matter what you do now (or have been doing for years), your teeth remember and will attack with a vengeance as soon as opportunity presents itself.

I found that out last year when I got an abscessed tooth, something I've never heard of anyone else having. I'll admit, I was careless. When I was up in Salt Lake with Sophie and eating out everyday I started noticing a pain on one of my teeth in the back. I've had such pains before and normally after a while the pain goes away like it was never there. No harm done. This lasted a bit longer and I assumed I had a cavity but really I had a lot on my mind, and being terrified of dentists I figured I would wait till I went to St. George to get it looked at by someone I'm comfortable with. In that time it got infected and voila, abscessed tooth. THE most horrible, painful experience of my life and that includes Sophie. C-sections aren't painful and I would deal with a million IV's again before getting another abscessed tooth. That stupid thing resulted in 2 root canals back to back (the dentist was in the middle of one when he said "oh well that didn't take care of it, lets do this tooth here too!") and such a painful recovery as over a few days the pus that had formed under my jaw slowly subsided. Disgusting, I know. I'm sorry for my bluntness but well.....that's me I guess. My mouth hurt the whole time. I could barely get it open enough to eat and if I did get food in there I couldn't chew, and smoothies wouldn't work because that hurt too. So not only was I in excruciating pain but also starving. Awesome.

The reason I'm bringing this all up 9 months later is that a few weeks ago my fillings came out of those two teeth (the dentist never said anything about coming in and getting caps on them, and we moved to Logan shortly after) and me in my never ending stupidity waited to go in to the dentist. I figured that it wouldn't be harmful, only annoying that I kept getting food stuck in there. But the root canal sharpened my teeth and I kept biting my cheek and that was getting really painful, but I figured that would subside and I was too busy planning Sophie's birthday party and a few other things came up so I let it go. Then this last Saturday Coden and I went and saw Snow White and the Huntsman (AMAZING!!) and I was laying on Codens shoulder and I noticed my jaw felt stiff. I touched just underneath and could tell that my lymph nodes were swollen, just like they were with that dang abscess! So of course I freaked out but it was the stinking weekend so I had to wait till Monday to call a dentist. Somehow Coden managed to get me in at 9:30. They referred me to a root canal specialist and he says it may not be another abscess but after the fillings come out it's best to get them taken care of within 10 days or there's a risk of leakage. I didn't ask leakage of what, I don't want to know. Anywho, now I have to go in on Thursday, only two days before Sophie's party, and get my root canals RE-DONE! I'd never even heard of that! The guy says it takes much longer, about an hour and a half per tooth BUT he says that it won't be painful at all as the first root canal removed those nerves. That's good news I guess. I still keep kicking myself because after my experience last year I vowed never to wait to go to a dentist again, but I didn't feel any pain so I didn't know there was a problem! But I still should have gone in. Then I would have dealt only getting caps put on those teeth instead of two freaking root canals. Wish me luck!

Oh AND the medicine they have me on now drains me of my energy and gives me incredibly sharp pain from my chest to my belly, but at least my mouth doesn't hurt!

UPDATE: I had the re-root canal done on Thursday June 14 and it went great! It totally sucked of course but the guy said mine were the easiest he's ever done, he was able to do both teeth in an hour and a half. I wasn't nervous until I got there because I planned ahead and had Coden download music to my phone, but then I forgot my headphones. So no distraction. I figured out that the two things I hate the most are the noises and the tastes, you know teeth shavings and all. Bleh. This dentist used a blue thing that looked like a fruit rollup to put in and around my mouth with little holes cut out for those two teeth to stick through. He called it a dam and it kept all water and teeth shavings and all that nasty stuff from going down my throat. He was surprised to hear that not all dentists use this. I'm definitely only going to him from now on!