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The Tooth Fairy Visits Again, and Again, and Again...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how much fun it is to get refills for prescriptions when you're me. I promised I'd write more about my experience, and I specifically mentioned my teeth. I've been feeling pretty crummy over the last week, and I've been thinking about things like this, so today seems like a good day to write. I'm so sorry for the delay, especially for those two people who have been waiting on pins and needles to hear about my mouth.

I'm also going to write this because I've seen in my referring site logs that some visitors to my blog have been searching for ways to abuse fentanyl. I hope they come back and see this story, or if they are new, and still looking for a high, that they read my account and take it to heart.

I've been blessed, up to this last two years, with nice teeth. I never had to have any orthodontic work done, and aside from a general problem with cavities I've had good dental health for most of my life. However, my natural teeth are dark because my mother took tetracycline when she was pregnant with me, like many other American mothers-to-be did in the 1960s. (I found a picture if you really, really, really want to see what the stain looks like, but be warned - these teeth are very ugly, much uglier than mine. It's the best representation I could find, though.) My front teeth were very dark at the gumline, which a few people noticed but not many. Other than this tinting, my teeth were straight, well-proportioned, and altogether nice.

That niceness ended when I started the pain odyssey, and it ended very quickly - within 18 months. I'm still amazed sometimes at how fast my teeth started literally disappearing before my eyes. The lozenges I take three or four times a day have over a teaspoon of sugar each. I didn't notice any change in my teeth until January of 2003, after I had been using the lozenges for almost a year.

It started one night when I was brushing my teeth. I noticed on my right front tooth had a very small piece missing, as if I had bit down on a hard object. I was not very happy because my smile was permanently changed, but I dismissed it as a one-time occurrence and went to bed. About three days later, more of the tooth was missing, and the other front tooth had a piece missing as well. I started to become concerned, but I didn't say anything to anyone. Remember, at this point I'd had five operations and was taking medicine that cost more than $2000 a month, so I figured I was being enough trouble for my family, especially my husband, and I didn't want to worry him any more.

Over the next eight months, the six upper front teeth and the lower eight front teeth eroded completely. If you can imagine taking a toothpick, centering it on one of your front teeth, and sawing it front to back until it left a groove in the center, that's what each tooth looked like. I thought when a tooth rotted away from too much sugar it would erode evenly across the chewing surface, because every picture I've ever seen of decayed teeth didn't look like what was happening in my very own mouth. It wasn't painful; that surprised me. But by the first of 2004 I was out of denial and couldn't ignore it anymore.

I hate dentists. I had a great dentist as a child, but I've hated dentists since I had a crown break about 15 minutes after it was put in my mouth, and the dentist had to remove it to put in the new one. It was painful and terrifying; I thought the man was going to put his foot on my chest for leverage as he pulled and pulled. I left in tears and vowed never to go back unless I had an emergency. This was now an emergency.

In February, I went to see Dr. William Letcher in Tulsa. Dr. Letcher has a good reputation, and offered the added benefit of allowing sedation while he worked. When I got to his office, I filled out the usual forms and his assistant, Billie, took a panoramic film of my mouth. Then we went to talk to the dentist while the film was being developed. At first, when he looked at my teeth and read my answers to his questions, Dr. Letcher didn't give me much hope. He said that he could fix my current problem, but it wouldn't do much good if I couldn't stop taking the medicine that caused the problem in the first place. I was very disappointed, and started to cry.

Then Billie brought in the film, and he looked at it, and changed his mind. It seems that the pattern of decay in my mouth wasn't typical of decay from sugar, but more typical of injury, like what I described above with the toothpick. I don't know how that happened, but it did, and that made all the difference to Dr. Letcher. He agreed to do the work necessary to restore my teeth.

Unfortunately, it wasn't cheap. I had to have fourteen crowns done at a cost of over $1,000 each. Dr. Letcher has his own dental lab, and the crowns are made on site. So, instead of getting a new car this year, I got new teeth.

I don't remember very much about the prep work, because I was sedated (would you want to be awake for the prep work for fourteen crowns? It took three hours), but I remember my mouth was swollen for about four days after and I couldn't bite down on anything. I went back about a week later to select the color of the permanent teeth, because I couldn't make a decision during the prep work. The temporary crowns were okay, but they were so thin that my old gray upper front teeth showed through. Once the uppers, which were all in one piece instead of six separate pieces, came off completely, while I was eating a bowl of clam chowder of all things, but I called the next morning and they got me right in to recement them.

Three weeks after the prep work, I went back to have the permanent ones put on, but I was in for a surprise - they weren't ready. Apparently, at the very last step of manufacture something happened in the reaction between the finishing glaze and the metal foundation, and the Very Expensive Crowns suddenly turned yellow. Dr. Letcher gave me the option of having these yellowish crowns installed, or he would have all fourteen remade at his own expense, but this time out of porcelain only, with no metal foundation. If I chose to have them remade, he would have to do some bonding to change my bite so it wouldn't be so close. Believe me - if you had seen these yellow crowns, you would have chosen the bonding and the new teeth. So, off I went to wait another three weeks.

Fortunately, the next time I went down the crowns were indeed ready, and they were installed with only a little bit of nitrous oxide gas to calm me down. I'm probably going to have to have some type of sedation every time I go to the dentist now, even for a routine cleaning, because it just bothers me so much. I lose two days, because the next day I'm usually hungover with a headache, but I don't want any more crowns.

On the bright side, I have great teeth now. Movie star teeth. They are almost pure white, and I can eat almost anything except very hard things that could possibly break the porcelain, like hard nuts, and I obviously can't bite open packages anymore. I have to take very good care of my remaining sixteen teeth and my gums, which means finding innovative ways to brush my teeth without rinsing the beneficial medication out of my mouth. Fortunately, Oral-B has come out with a new product that allows me to do just that. I can now get the sugar off the teeth four times a day and the medicine stays in my mouth so it can work. Very, very good.

And that's the tooth story. I hope it's the end of the tooth story, but if I've learned anything over the last few years it's that nothing is ever over. It's just in stasis.

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