Sunday, May 5, 2013

Dental Work.... Seriously?

I've had two fillings in my life, ever. And I hated it. But it was 10+ years ago. No problems since. Every time I go to the dentist these days, it' all,"everything looks good!" and "there's a spot back here that we will keep an eye on, but everything else looks great!" So, I don't mind the dentist much....
 
And then my race was a week away...
 
My back tooth had been a little sensitive lately, but I clench my jaw and grind my teeth when I'm stressed out, and I suppose this race has been stressing my out a tad. I figured this tooth was just tired of being ground to dust by my other teeth. In my head, once the race was done, everything would be fine. WRONG!
 
A few days ago I took a chug of my coffee and WHAMMO pain in that darn tooth. This wasn't the tired of grinding my teeth pain I was pretending it might be. So I called the dentist and casually asked if they could see me. I thought that maybe my filling had fallen out. Surely that was it. WRONG!
 
I got to the dentist, they took x-rays, poked at my tooth with various tools that caused minor to major pain. End result: a cracked tooth! A cracked tooth? How does that even happen? Then the doc tells me I need a crown and "hopefully" that will fix it (if not I get a root canal... barf). My first question...
 
I have a 50k to run a week from Saturday, will this effect my race?
 
Yes, I have a problem. He tells me we can put the crown on and if it DOESN'T solve the problem, I can just eat soft food on the left side of my mouth and then it's root canal city... after the race. In my head I'm thinking, really I'm going to be eating soft food only the week before the race (because of course I assume that it won't work)? But what are you going to do, huh?
 
I got the stupid crown put on. It was highly traumatic. I even ran 10 miles the next day. So far it seems to have done the job... who knows? Keeping things interesting while going into the home stretch of race week? That's what I do!

5 comments:

  1. So how was it? Did the crown do its thing or did you have to get that root canal afterwards? Ugh, root canals. The only thing that drives me to make sure my teeth stay healthy. Had three when I was younger, and I said to myself: that’s the limit.


    Weston Wadlington

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    1. Thankfully it seems to have done the trick! Thank goodness! I NEVER want to do that again!!!

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  2. If only you paid attention to the symptoms, then the damage might have been prevented. Anyway, it happened already and at least now you know that symptoms shouldn't be ignored but rather be given attention. Make sure you visit your dentist regularly to not experience any hassle before your race day.

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  3. Your tooth definitely cracked at the wrong time. I’m glad that you immediately seeked help from your dentist and had it fixed once and for all. How is it, by the way? I hope, despite your cracked tooth, you still were able to attend the race.

    Jody @ HoustonSmileDocs.com

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    1. Tooth is good! And it was great on race day! Hooray for helpful dentists!

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