Pandoras Box

My bite adjustment was Pandora's Box...

Well my tooth slowly started to bother me more and more, I was convinced I needed a root canal.

I finally got to LF on Tuesday with my fingers crossed and a couple people praying for me.

LF said my gums were inflamed, she irrigated it and gave me a prescription mouth wash, who knew they made that. The change in the contour of the tooth has made a gap under the bracket on the neighboring tooth which is allowing stuff in and then inflaming the tooth. I will need to get the bracket fixed, lucky me!

My tooth is feeling better sometimes, and is still irritated at other times, but it sounds like this is my solution, it can't be worse then a root canal.

A filling and a bite adjustment

On Tuesday I went for my bite adjustment. LF didn't adjust too much of my bite, but it's a little better now. She did also redo a filling on my lower right, that tooth is still bothering me. See, this is why I hate getting work done, I always feel like I opened pandoras box. She did mention that the Endodontist had sent a letter to her and Dr. F regarding the tooth that had just had the root canal - the braces are moving the tooth closer to the cleft, part of why the tooth is taking so long to heal.

On a slightly different topic...
I am part of a large medical study and as part of it I get a physical every year, today was my physical. The PA who was conducting the physical went through all of my medical problems and tried to find a solution for all of them, some might have been good but she wasn't really listening to my symptoms first so she ended up just being annoying. For example, she was recommending to me this nasal rinse. I asked her if she knew if I would have any trouble with it because of my cleft lip and palate. I don't think she actually knew what a cleft lip and palate was because she said that it doesn't go in the throat, huh? I just dropped it. Then she was doing an examination of my nose and discovered that my left nostril was small, it blew her mind! She asked if I could get that fixed. I then had to explain that if I do all of this dental stuff, then I can go for an consultation to see if it can be repaired, but pointed out that I had lived for 30 or so years like this. Am I supposed to take this woman seriously?

I bite, but it hurts

This past week I realized that both of the teeth that had formerly been capped, but then separated for my braces, hit the teeth below them and not in a good way. Their position before never allowed them to hit the teeth below them, but the braces have moved them into a position where they are not hitting and combined with the braces are in pain. The pain has subsided a bit in the last day, but I will be going to see LF on Tuesday to get the bit adjusted.

Apparently I was raised in a barn

Friday I was back at Dr. F's office. One of the doors on my brackets kept opening. I noticed it one night while brushing my teeth. I did a little investigation and realized I had done it myself with one of those little brushes you use on braces. I closed the bracket and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and the bracket was open, obviously the door was opening itself. So back to Dr. F's. He tied the wire to the bracket using a thin wire. Hopefully the tooth will start moving now.

Root Canal

I've had 4 root canals and yesterdays was the most painful. The Endodontist was very good at doing the injections so I didn't feel the need to bite him. But I ended up waiting a bit before he started to do the work on the tooth. I think that allowed the novicain to wear off a bit during the process. But also because the root is on the edge of the cleft the soft tissue in the cleft was inflamed apparently making things more painful. The good news is that the root canal was done in one shot and I'm done with it. I took lots of Advil last night since the tooth already hurt when I left the Endodontis, but is feeling pretty good this morning. Hopefully it stays that way.