Taking the first step

I went to the dentist today to have the root canal tooth finished. Unfortunately I have recently noticed a very slight pain in the tooth, not enough to run and get the tooth looked at (I'm really sick of dealing with this tooth), but enough to make it a consideration when choosing what to do with the tooth. LF decided to do a provisional crown on the tooth and see how it goes, she felt it might even be a better option for the tooth since I'm getting brace next month.

The other thing was that since this tooth would take much less time she decided to do the two tooth cap/bridge today instead of tomorrow. With that LF took a drill to my tooth. My first thought was - there goes a couple grand in dental work. Then I had a moment of almost having an anxiety attack, that panic about taking that first step on a long road... It lasted about a minute and then I just sat there as the bridge was drilled away. I got some good news - the two teeth are in good shape, which was very much a concern. LF said that the mobility in the bridge wasn't from the teeth. She did find that one tooth had a touch of mobility in it, but she thought that would go away now that the teeth are separated.

So how does it look and feel? The tooth next to the middle teeth looks almost exactly the same, though is irritating my gum a bit tonight. The other tooth you can now tell is set back in the mouth a little bit and looks a little smaller, though it doesn't look "bad." That tooth is irritating my tongue and the gum in the front is sensitive, I suspect that part of the gum there had been protected by the old bridge and is now exposed to my mouth for the first time in years.

Moving things up.

I spoke to Dr. F on Friday and it was an eye opening phone call. He didn't have too much to offer in the way of health insurance, though seemed to mention HIP a lot. He did say though that we have to get started with things much sooner then I thought. I had been given the impression that the palate expander would be done early during this whole thing. However, Dr. F needs about 6 months to get my teeth in order before doing the palate expander. I was blown away! He said if I want to do the palate expander in mid February then I need to start with the braces in August. August is right around the corner! This is going to require a shift in thinking and a lot of work I hadn't planned on just yet.

Before he can do the braces though I need to have the cap/bridge replaced, a slight problem since LF is going to be away for most of July. I did manage to get an appointment with her for the end of July, which is good. I also need to finish the work on the tooth that just got the root canal, which is scheduled for the end of July too. I have another tooth that I know will eventually need to be crowned. It now has a little chip in it, I need to find out if this tooth is still sturdy enough to hold up for the braces or if it needs to be crowned before.

My other issue that this is screwing up is that I was planning on taking a little trip to Scotland in September, as a pre-braces trip for myself. I had figured once I got the braces I would scale down my travel to long weekends in the US, so this was to be my last big trip for a while. I'm now considering some other stuff, but money will definitely be an issue once I start everything.