h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a toothache. I had an appointment a few weeks ago to have this filling repaired, but I overslept and didn't go to it. Now the tooth hurts. I think it does anyways. I believe that it is a tooth that has had a root canal done on it so it shouldn't have any nerve in it anymore, right? But something over there sort of hurts when I bite down. But if there is no nerve anymore there shouldn't be any harm in waiting to have the filling fixed, right? I mean how much more could happen? The dentist who did the root canal did say when he did it that I would probably have to go back to have a crown put on it because the filling wouldn't hold up. It's held up fine so far. It does need to be repaired now but it is not the filling that is supposed to fall apart it is the tooth itself because it falls apart after the nerve is removed. But the tooth itself seems fine. The filling just needs to be fixed. So why does it hurt? What is hurting about it?

Did I mention that I no longer have Dental coverage? Tim Pawlenty and the Minnesota State Legislature have determined that people who are very poor but not desparately poor do not need Dental coverage nor do we need teeth. This coverage was cancelled on October 1 just days before a student at the University of Minnesota Dental school and her instructor told me that I probably needed a root canal on another tooth. I did not get the root canal as the procedure would have cost me $1000 or so. The U of M was not going to cooperate and just give me a root canal and a filling. Rather they were going to insist that I needed to have a crown done immediately thus the even more outrageous expense.

Around that time I spoke to my mother on the phone. She helpfully told me that I was on my way to loosing all my teeth just like she did (when she was much younger than my current age...) She said I'd better get the root canal anyways. I'd been on antibiotics and the pain had stopped. She said the infection would come back in a couple of weeks. I ignored this advice. I decided to continue the antibiotics and see what happens. The pain in that particular tooth went away and has not come back. Well it did flare up a tiny bit once but nothing came of it.

But regarding my current tooth pain, it is a different tooth. One that has already had a root canal so why would it hurt? It only hurts when I bite down on it. But I know it's there so I bite down on it just to see if it still hurts. It does. Better call the dentist back tomorrow, huh.

Well it turned out that this was an abcess in the gum by the tooth. It was expecially painful 3 days ago and I realised the gum was all inflamed there. I poked at it and it bled. I then doused it in the miracle product tea tree oil and it became less painful within an hour. It was painful and swollen for the next couple of days unless I kept tea tree oil on it all the time. Last night I gargled with salt and doused it with TTO and repeated this morning. Now it is really better. I don't think I'll even have to call the dentist about it. Yippee.

I did decide to refrain from eating popcorn at the movie tonight. And I really wanted some too.

New news on the tooth problem! The tooth is broken and that was causing the abcess. The abcess is mostly gone but threatens to come back if I don't keep treating it. The tooth itself is broken sort of in half along where the filling is. Both sides of it are still stuck in the gum and one side is loose and causes pain if it is moved. This should be treated asap but as I don't have insurance I am going to wait till next week. I will try to go to Helping Hand Dental on Wednesday am when they do emergency dentistry stuff. I will probably have the tooth pulled out alltogether. I don't see how it can be saved. It has had a root canal which is why it was weakened enough to break anyways. I just can't eat much solid food right now. I hope they can pull it with local anesthetic.