Diet karma

So I cheated on my Gastritis diet today, and boy did Karma, Justice, the Universe, or whatever you wanna call it, come swooping down to smack me for it! I was happily munching away on peanut M&M's, as a sort of treat for having started up my walking routine again this weekend. A mere four or five brightly-colored chocolate lovelies into it, I felt an... odd... sensation in one of my left molars- the same one I had a root canal in last fall/winter and which is still in need of a crown. I felt around a bit, poking and prodding and something definately didn't feel right around the older metal filling ringing the edge of the root canal.

On a side note of interest and to explain the "older" in that last sentence- it turns out that a "filling" I got when I was a mere six or seven years old was in fact an unfinished root canal that the dentist called a filling and never spoke of again. It was supposed to have been finished within two weeks, a month tops, or the tooth could very well, and probably would, rot out totally and possibly take the teeth to either side with it. Over the years I've had several other dentists mention that it looked like an unfinished root canal, but Mama Wren and I both laughed it off, as the dentist who did the filling called it a filling, and in all the times I went back to him in years afterward, never mentioned it again. I'd never had any problems with it, but when I started up with a new dentist last year, he said that whether it was a filling or unfinished root canal, the root had died and it definately needed a root canal now. So I had it done, and only the main center part of the old metal filling was taken out; the edge of it ringing the tooth was left and after the root canal it was filled in with nice new tooth-colored stuff.

It turns out it WAS an unfinished root canal; when the new dentist broke through the metal filling, he found - get this- COTTON inside my tooth. It was still white, still dry and still fluffy (I saw it as they pulled it out of my tooth.) I got SO damn lucky- had that "filling" not held, the cotton would have rotted and there goes at least one tooth, if not more. Hell, if the root had rotted, I'd have lost teeth. Needless to say, I really want to find that old dentist and give him a peice of my boot - er, um... I mean, mind. Yeah.

Anywho. So the older metal part of the "filling" didn't feel quite right, and upon examining it further in the bathroom mirror, I dislodged two or three small chips of tooth from under it. Once they were gone it felt right again only, well, somehw less... there. On the left side of that tooth I now have a small ridge of tooth sticking up above the gumline, and from that point (and in a bit) it's a small metal "wall" molded perfectly from the inside of that tooth.

This is the first time (I think) that I've ever chipped a tooth, and when I called my dentist they said it was common with root canals before the crown is put on, and to avoid eating anything hard and crunchy (No shit! Really?!?) I've been putting off getting the crown due to the cost, but now I have to just buckle down and do it; I don't want to lose more of the tooth if I can avoid it. I found out what the crown will cost after insurance: $500-something. Ouch, and it has to be paid up front because my dentist doesn't have the equipment to do billing (or I'd have gotten the crown done by now and would just be making payments on it.)

But there is a bit of a break (ha, ha! Oh gods, I kill me!) in this- since I chipped a bit of the tooth, the receptionist said I could have the first part of the crowning procedure - something about building up and strengthening - done separately from the rest of the procedure, so I'd have two different, smaller payments for two different appointments. That will make it a little easier to do, but I'm still cringing a bit. Glad I'm starting to eat a lot of salad now; it's cheap.

So next Tuesday morning I go in for the "rebuilding and strengthening" of that tooth in preparation for the actual crown. Oh, joy. Just the way I like to start my day- a good, rough wrassling with sharp dental tools that smell like burnt bone and smoke, and that horrid droll-sucker thingy that somehow manages to suck up as little drool as possible, leaving you with a mouth full of foul-tasting saliva and the maddening urge to kill. I can't wait.

Damn peanut M&M's. I'm power walking four miles today, not just three, just to make those four ro five bits of candy worth it.