Woe is me...
Oct. 27th, 2004 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helsinkibabySo, the orthodonist this morning. He's going through all the treatments, all the options and the dangers thereof. Basically maps out everything he's going to do with me over the next two years. Then he takes X-rays, and they have the digital machine on site to do them, so it's instant, yes? And he's going over the dangers, talking about root shortening and suchlike, and he pulls up the x-rays to show me the roots of my teeth, and the mouse does this cool thing where, when you run it over a tooth, it magnifies what you're running it over? When all of a sudden, he stops, and says, "What the heck is that?"
OK, anyone have five other words they'd less like to hear when looking at an x-ray?
So he gets up the other x-rays and checks, and confirms what the first one is showing him. In my mouth, in the upper jaw, lying right between the roots of my two front teeth, there is, and I quote in the best orthodontological language yer man possesses, "a wee little ball of a tooth" -- not a baby tooth, or an adult tooth, oh no. An extra tooth. That never crowned. And has just been lying there, dormant, for 27 years.
Those of you who long suspected I was a freak? Now we have X-ray proof!
Which is all very funny, except for, you know that plan he was talking about? This tooth is a problem. Because if we whack braces on my top teeth, that will cause the roots to move. Which would likely cause them to hit agianst the buried tooth. Which would be bad because it could cause root damage and basically kill my crooked but otherwise healthy front teeth.
To get the tooth removed? This is a possibility. But. It is a buried tooth, buried deep, so it is, in yer man's words, "a fairly medium operation you're talking about" -- which my mother, in her infinite motherly wisdom, has turned into a major operation. It's also an operation that could damage the roots of my otherwise healthy teeth, leading to possible need for root canal, in the worst case scenario, extraction of my crooked but otherwise healthy adult teeth, oh, and did I forget to mention the possible nerve damage that could also ensue???
Long story short? Treatment on hold while he ships my X-rays off to a specialist friend of his, who will probably want to see me to talk through my various options... practicing on the south side of Dublin city, which is a camel hike and a half, where I don't know where I'll be driving too, and will necessitate time off work... (HelsinkiPrincipal, I know I'm leaving early and coming in late a shitload of times because I have all these appointments to go to, but I'm going to need a day off to go to a dental specialist, because of my freakish nature... is that all right???)
Why can these things not ever be simple?
OK, anyone have five other words they'd less like to hear when looking at an x-ray?
So he gets up the other x-rays and checks, and confirms what the first one is showing him. In my mouth, in the upper jaw, lying right between the roots of my two front teeth, there is, and I quote in the best orthodontological language yer man possesses, "a wee little ball of a tooth" -- not a baby tooth, or an adult tooth, oh no. An extra tooth. That never crowned. And has just been lying there, dormant, for 27 years.
Those of you who long suspected I was a freak? Now we have X-ray proof!
Which is all very funny, except for, you know that plan he was talking about? This tooth is a problem. Because if we whack braces on my top teeth, that will cause the roots to move. Which would likely cause them to hit agianst the buried tooth. Which would be bad because it could cause root damage and basically kill my crooked but otherwise healthy front teeth.
To get the tooth removed? This is a possibility. But. It is a buried tooth, buried deep, so it is, in yer man's words, "a fairly medium operation you're talking about" -- which my mother, in her infinite motherly wisdom, has turned into a major operation. It's also an operation that could damage the roots of my otherwise healthy teeth, leading to possible need for root canal, in the worst case scenario, extraction of my crooked but otherwise healthy adult teeth, oh, and did I forget to mention the possible nerve damage that could also ensue???
Long story short? Treatment on hold while he ships my X-rays off to a specialist friend of his, who will probably want to see me to talk through my various options... practicing on the south side of Dublin city, which is a camel hike and a half, where I don't know where I'll be driving too, and will necessitate time off work... (HelsinkiPrincipal, I know I'm leaving early and coming in late a shitload of times because I have all these appointments to go to, but I'm going to need a day off to go to a dental specialist, because of my freakish nature... is that all right???)
Why can these things not ever be simple?
