New Carnival Diet

Yeah so this might be kinda irrelevant at this point and a bit of sidebar of the purpose of this blog. But let me tell you, if you ever want to lose 10 pounds for say...Carnival....then get lot sof dental work done and even get braces!

No seriously, my mouth still hurting me. Four days after separators...When I am talking or doing nothing its ok. But when I apply any sort of pressure to my teeth i.e biting or closing my jawor EATING it is extremely uncomfortable. Right now I can even tell the difference between filling pain and separator pain. Is just pain all round. I watching food whole day with longing. I so doh want to even try to eat anything cause its a hassle!It take me half hour to eat a sandwich just becauseI have to chew in slow motion. Its just too much trouble.By the time I finish my jaw hurting more from all the chewing!I not even tryimg to eat harder foods. But think about it..those are the ones that are more fattening.If I was on a diet I would be on easy street.Itreally is more discomfort than pain but lawd aye. This is what I have to go thru every month with them braces??NAH! Every time I get it in my head to just say to hell with it and look to pull out the separators I get a good look at my crooked bottom teeth and change my mind. Boy I have a loong road ahead of me.

Outta Space and more Cavities

Since I was on vacation before and after Carnival and tried to squeeze as many appointments as I could during this time so I would not have to take time off work.In hindsight, this was both a good and a bad idea. I had a filling to complete and my records to do at the orthdontist the same day.

I started off at the dentist at 9:00am to get the final filling done. This went much faster than the others as it was much smaller. Somewhere along I made a comment that my other filling felt as though I always had something stuck in between, then again my teeth always feel that way.Well who tell me say that! The dentist took another look at the first filling and decided it was not 'perfect' . I ended up getting anaesthia on both sides of my face as she went back in to jook up the first filling. I certainly appreciate the thoroughness but I was not bound to get all that jook one time.Now I know why they did not let me do all the filllings in one sitting in the first place. My face was so numb that I could not even gargle the water to rinse my mouth.

I left there with about 15 minutes to spare for my next appointment. I was a bit concerned as to how I was going to be able to do the records with my face all numb. I could barely feel my face to bite down on my teeth. A hop,skip and a jump later I was at the ortho.

After checking in myself, I was quickly attended to. The xray guy was very pleasant and showed me how to stand in front of yet another full frontal x ray machine. Afterwards I took my moulds where I had the choice between peppermint,watermelon and pina colada latex. Apparently they were all out of strawberry cheesecake. The moulds are the actual impressions of your teeth as they are before treatment.I was kinda glad I did not see them finished.

Well when I thought they were done I was still leaningback in the chair.I'm thinking they still have more impressions to take. Nope! Lucky me, they were putting in my separators one time.
These are small elastic bands which are placed between the teeth to seperate them so that the metal bands can be fittted around the tooth. The bands act as the anchors for the braces in case you did not know. Well I got them in with no problem, good to go.

When I met with the receptionist to make my next appointent she gave me my appointment. I was planning for first week in April based on my budget.I was told that I was getting braces on the 7th March. Ok then!! It will definitely take some clever juggling for me to pull that off. The ceramic braces require a $9000 downpayment. If I choose ceramic uppers and metal lowers its $7500. All metal is $6000. I am in between the all ceramic and the combo but any how you take it I was not really comfortable with pelting out that money so soon. The thing is if I postpone it to be cautious about my budget I won't be able to get another appointment until 10th April when my Ortho come back from vacation. I will also have to get these separators taken out as I can't have them in for that length of time. Decisions decisions. I decided to keep in the separators and work it out and then cancel and come back in for removal if I changed my mind.

I left the dentist very well.I went to the beach , yam down a bake and shark. Somewhere along I realised the anaesthia was wearing off. Boy, its that when the pain started. My separators are really uncomfortable.It uncomfortable by itself but then I have these fillings that are sensitive as well.I not even sure anymore what really causing the pain.The separators feel gross when I bite my teeth together cause it literally feels like you biting into a rubber band. Thats in addition to the fact that I have an almost uncontrollable urge to dig them out.Again, they feel like boulder betweenmy teeth.Its the teeth next to the separators feel like they want to move as well. I would HATE to have gone through this and then start over.I scheduled the records appointment not realising that they would be doing all this so soon. My hope for having a pain free birthday on Friday is out the door!Lucky me!

The doctor says to the patient....

Yeah, sounds like a old joke coming on..well I definitely thought THIS was hilarious. After my visit to the dentist and the pain of spending all that money hit me (notthe pain of the filling !). I made a call to Ortho Dr.1 with vengenance in my soul for the expense I was put under which was in my mind avoidable. I did not call t make noise however as I was rather disgusted with the situation, I called to politely cancel my appointment to do my records. I spoke to the receptionist and she asked when I wanted to reschedule. I am sure I laughed noticably. I told her no thanks I won't be rescheduling. She politely enquired to my reason and I politely advised her that I had decided to go with someone else.

To my suprise the doctor called me back a few minutes later. Doc's first words to me was that if I had a problem with the cost of the treatment that they would be able to work things out for me. You know that got me pissed.....I was more than willing a week before to pay for their over priced service based solely on the promise of shorter treatment times. I took offense to the fact that I was brushed off at the follow up consultation quite abruptly and here Doc was sounding almost desperate to reel me back in.Oh so now they realise I really looking to spend my money , now I am a patient worthy of their time.STEUPS. Yuh kow I tell them how it is. I said that the reason I went with someone else is that I was told by my dentist that I had a cavity in my mouth which I felt they should have picked up since it was evidently present when I pointed it out 3 years ago. Doc responded by saying that they saw nothing on my xray and surmised that it developed recently. I retorted that it was not so much a cavity as it was a canyon since it was almost a root canal. The Doc sounded a bit taken aback and flustered and again commented that nothing was on the xray.Then I was told that the dentist xrays are more precise than the full frontal xrays they take. After all they are only checking my tooth structure.Then Doc is demanding the name of my Dr. I had a mind they wanted they wanted the other Ortho's Name but I thought well enough to give the Dentist's name. I wante dthem to calland hear just how big it was. Well I always thought a xray was a xray, i suppose I am wrong. I was still not impressed with the doc's reasoning on the matter. Then Doc was soon back to haggling the price and talking about payment plan.I let them know that the price was not an issue until I had to factor in the cost of all the reconstructive work.I could fix my teeth and put on the CERAMIC braces for less than their base cost.The doc then did something I did not expect and undermined the practice of the other yet unamed doctor. Doc said that their treatemnt was better because they use real ceramic braces and not plastic synthetic braces like those other doctors. This was teh justification for their elevated costs. With that comment made in such a way that Doc was struggling to control the tone just sealed my decision. No way I want this person in my mouth. I just said that was so nice of them to make accomodations for me, I would definitely reconsider in light of their offer. (yeah right!)

Of course I immediately emailed my Ortho to confirm exactly which type of Ceramic braces they used.

Anti-Cavity

Sigh so bright and early I went to the dentist to have the larger cavity filled.(The two in one stunner). Thankfully they move on time so I did not have to wait long. I got into see the dentist within 5 minutes there.

As I sat on the dentist's chair the doctor warned me that the cavity is usually more advanced than what the xrays show. I may have actually had to do a root canal!! OUCH!! You think anyone at my age should have that going on in their mouth?? You know that just got me even more pissed off at the Ortho Dr.1 .How the hell they could not see the gorge that was forming in my mouth???

So after getting some nice drugs and some fancy equipment buzzing around my head. I had the cavity filled. It was much less painless than I imagined it to me. Doh mind I was tensed up almost the entire time she was in my mouth. I was also given a block to bite down on to keep my mouth open. I was too embarrassed to look to see what I did to the block. The impressions I left might have been able to cut through the block itself. The time flew quickly but I could tell she had her work cut out for her.Fortunately I avoided the root canal. I was advised that I would have to monitor it cause it could eventually become one. I opted for the tooth coloured fillings since I already had enough metal in my mouth due to my experience with another slightly suspect dentist. I got large metal fillings before where a cavity was not even visible with the naked eye!

So after a little over and hour I was done and talking like an idiot. I winced as the receptionist took my money.A grand gone easy easy. LAWD! And ppl complain about the cost of dental work in the states! I must say though, I can't even tell where the cavity is, the match was excellent