Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Tooth Ogre

Today's banner illustrates why you should never be honest with your dentist. I told my hygienist that I had been experiencing some aching in my upper teeth, and she took an xray. "I don't see anything, maybe it's sinus pressure."

Then Dr. Kierkegaarde came and took a look. "Oh, my. Look at that. Look at that! Tsk, tsk." To the trained eye, there is a shadow on the root of one of the teeth in this image. See if you can find it...

Dr. Kierkegaarde doesn't want to guess, but she unfortunately mentioned internal root resorption as a possibility, which sounds nastier than a root canal, one of which I've had in my life. She asked me if I'd had a bump in the face recently, perhaps playing with a child. Quite likely, given how Kelly and I play. I hope this turns out to be an inflammation, or at worst a regular root canal.

I've got to call some guy in downtown Portland for an appointment. We'll see.

First Update



I spoke with a receptionist, and told her the tooth number and Dr. Kierkegaarde's diagnosis, and she used the words 'root canal', so I'm at least back in familiar territory, i.e. I'm not worried that they'll actually jerk the tooth. I had a root canal done a few years ago, and while I didn't enjoy it, I got to keep the tooth.

That could change of course, but I had a lot of probably unnecessary anxiety after following that dental school link above...


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