Much worse, in fact.
You know it's bad when you're given a nearly full refund (minus the cost of materials) for the three visits you've paid to the endodontist in the last week.
You know it's really bad when the endodontist suggests a dental implant, unless you would prefer to go through this all over again in seven to ten years.
You know it can't get much worse when the receptionist from your regular dentist leaves a message on your cell before you've even leftthe endodontist's office, saying "I'm so sorry, we just heard the news; please call as soon as possible to schedule an appointment so that we can discuss your options."
Yes, things have gone from bad to worse for tooth #3. When my endodontist opened up the gum today, he discovered a fracture in the root that wasn't picked up by the x-rays. The good news? He got the infection cleaned out. The bad news? It will come back, because there's basically an open pipeline between my gum and my bone, caused by the fracture.
I really like my endodontist and trust him, so when he said that if it were him or his wife, he would go the route of extracting the tooth and replacing it with an implant, rather than risking the infection coming back and further disintegrating my bone, I agreed and said I would go for the implant as well.
The pain is manageable so far. In fact, I came straight back to work, even though everyone here thinks I'm crazy for doing so. Things were a little hairy when the Novocaine started to wear off while waiting for the pain meds to kick in, but I'm surviving. I have seven gloriously ugly stitches in my gum that will need to be taken out in a week. The swelling is moderate and I've been keeping an icepack on my cheek to dissuade it from swelling any more. I've got a nice prescription of vicodin/ibuprofen that is keeping me in a comfortable, yet slightly groggy state.
The silver lining on this cloud? On Tuesday, I charged the $1,400 bill on our Royal Caribbean credit card (every dollar goes towards us earning a free cruise). The refund I got today was in check form, meaning that we still get those credit card points. Score!!
