Dang Tooth
So I had this infection a ways back in some of the screws that hold my pretty face all together. We treated the infection aggressively and I didn't really think much of it. A few weeks later I had this gnarly pain in my teeth and my gum's were bleeding like a cheap B horror movie. Back to the oral & maxillofacial surgeon I go only to find that the infection had led to a pretty sever abscess. It just so happened at that time that I was in the midst of planning to summit Telescope Peak in Death Valley from the western reaches-- an attempt that not many in recent memory had tried. Oh yah and we were aiming on doing all of this in the dead of winter! Needless to say I really didn't feel comfortable having a few teeth drill out right before leaving. Who could say how I would react at 11,000 feet in sub-freezing temperatures with a new hole in my mouth. So I put it on the back burner.
Life as you would have rolled on. I put the whole abscess thingy out of my mind as much as possible. Things rolled on. It was on my to-do list. You know right between learning how to yodel and standing on my head and farting confetti. Well unfortunately for me this dang tooth had other ideas. I went for a little hike last weekend to stretch the legs. About half way through I slipped in the middle of a scree field and went slip sliding away down into the canyon. It was no big deal really except that I had this dull pain in my jaw for the rest of the hike. By the next morning that dull pain was excruciating. Out came the whiskey and Advil-- its an old home remedy I swear by. I figured things would get better in a few days or so. I just had to put on a brave face and weather the storm.
Needless to say the storm was never weathered. Four days later I was delirious with pain, so much so in fact I had vision of pulling out the stupid thing myself. I would ply it around with my fingers and tell myself I could do it. Fortunately I am a wimp at heart and never went through with it. Instead I scheduled an emergency extraction & bone graft. Once I actually got into the surgeon's office things pretty much went fairly smoothly. Out came the tooth without much of a fight and a follow-up visit to re-discuss the bone graft was scheduled. You see I couldn't do everything then and there because in a few days I am taking off once again for Telescope Peak in the winter and who the crap knows how a bloody bone graft will do at 11,000 feet and sub-freezing temperatures. That dumb graft is however on my to-do list...(grin).
Life as you would have rolled on. I put the whole abscess thingy out of my mind as much as possible. Things rolled on. It was on my to-do list. You know right between learning how to yodel and standing on my head and farting confetti. Well unfortunately for me this dang tooth had other ideas. I went for a little hike last weekend to stretch the legs. About half way through I slipped in the middle of a scree field and went slip sliding away down into the canyon. It was no big deal really except that I had this dull pain in my jaw for the rest of the hike. By the next morning that dull pain was excruciating. Out came the whiskey and Advil-- its an old home remedy I swear by. I figured things would get better in a few days or so. I just had to put on a brave face and weather the storm.
Needless to say the storm was never weathered. Four days later I was delirious with pain, so much so in fact I had vision of pulling out the stupid thing myself. I would ply it around with my fingers and tell myself I could do it. Fortunately I am a wimp at heart and never went through with it. Instead I scheduled an emergency extraction & bone graft. Once I actually got into the surgeon's office things pretty much went fairly smoothly. Out came the tooth without much of a fight and a follow-up visit to re-discuss the bone graft was scheduled. You see I couldn't do everything then and there because in a few days I am taking off once again for Telescope Peak in the winter and who the crap knows how a bloody bone graft will do at 11,000 feet and sub-freezing temperatures. That dumb graft is however on my to-do list...(grin).
This is what a periodontal abscess that festers in the supporting bone andtissue structures of the teeth looks like after 13 months lingering.
**For some rad shots of the whole ordeal check out Bick's blog here. The oral surgeon was cool with it so he was able to shoot the whole play by play for those of you who'd like to see me suffer!
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