Gnawing Problem
Nov. 12th, 2004 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plumtreeblossomSomehow I broke a tooth in my sleep last night. A back molar, and one of the key workhorses of my mouth. When I went to bed, the whole tooth was there. When I woke up, a third of it was gone, with a ragged and very sharp edge where it broke. It's cutting my tongue. There ws no sign of the tooth in my bed, so apparently I swallowed it. That's just wonderful.
It takes a lot to make me feel old, but anything having to do with tooth decline does the trick. In the animal world, one only lives as long as one's teeth, and to have a tooth break without obvious cause is a sharp reminder of mortality and the eventual crumble our bodies. I can work out at the gym 'til the cows come home, but there's no workout for teeth.
Compounded by the fact that my dental insurance only covers 25% of whatever must be done to fix the tooth, I am most unhappy and have a piece of sugar-free gum pressed over the tooth to protect my poor tongue. I have a friend staying in Mexico who just had his entire mouth refurbished and reworked for only a few hundred dollars -- work that would have cost in the neighborhood of $5,000 here in the States. I'm now wondering if I could do the same in Canada.
It takes a lot to make me feel old, but anything having to do with tooth decline does the trick. In the animal world, one only lives as long as one's teeth, and to have a tooth break without obvious cause is a sharp reminder of mortality and the eventual crumble our bodies. I can work out at the gym 'til the cows come home, but there's no workout for teeth.
Compounded by the fact that my dental insurance only covers 25% of whatever must be done to fix the tooth, I am most unhappy and have a piece of sugar-free gum pressed over the tooth to protect my poor tongue. I have a friend staying in Mexico who just had his entire mouth refurbished and reworked for only a few hundred dollars -- work that would have cost in the neighborhood of $5,000 here in the States. I'm now wondering if I could do the same in Canada.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 08:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 08:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 08:55 am (UTC)Re: Ouch!
Date: 2004-11-12 09:48 am (UTC)I just this month got the dental insurance, so I'm about to try out a new dentist. He's right around the corner from my house, which is really good.
I have something *really* dirty to say about a certain something you can't do with a sharp broken tooth, but I'll save it for performance tonight!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 10:27 am (UTC)Losing teeth is one of the few classic nightmare symbols I'm subject to when stressed... I know where you're coming from. It feels so much like a rot in the heartwood, doesn't it?
Of course, it's just a tooth. We can fix these things now, and we don't live in the wild.
Still, it sucks. Hope the rest of your life is extra-wonderful to compensate for it.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 10:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 11:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 11:40 am (UTC)-Dej
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 12:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 12:44 pm (UTC)If I recall correctly, the rest of the story went like this: he had the choice to get an operation done back in the States or stay in Mexico and have it done. It resulted being a LOT cheaper to do it in Mexico, because the man's insurance gladly covered the costs to have it done there rather than spend all SORTS of money just on transporting him back to the US. The Mexican doctors stayed in contact with this man's doctors in the US (I believe my school's director helped out as a translator when he could), and during the operation the Mexican doctor tried something that was a little bit more risky than what the US doctor said he would have been willing to do had he been doing the operation. This slightly risky procedure ended up saving the guy's ability to walk.
The way I understood it, if the somewhat risky procedure by small chance had caused even more damage, the man couldn't sue the Mexican doctor because it was still WITHIN what was acceptable to try. The Mexican attitude is that, since the chances that it would restore his ability to walk far outweighed the chances that it could do even more damage, it was best to try the procedure. And if it didn't work out, the doctor couldn't be sued. He could only have a hearing on whether it was malpractice or not (if it was deemed malpractice he would lose his license). In the US, however, the attitude is that the risks of being sued in the event the procedure does more damage outweigh the chances of being able to save the man's ability to walk.
And that's my story. :)
-Dejio
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 01:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 02:08 pm (UTC)Incidentally, I have a dear friend in Mexico who is both an Episcopal priest and a dentist. So he could do the work on your mouth, and if something goes horribly awry between the nitrous and your pearly whites, well, let's just say he could give you a jump start to the pearly gates...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-12 03:32 pm (UTC)