Dr. Paul

It's been a little over a week and I believe the tooth crisis has past. In my last post, I wrote about my little tooth incident. Well, here's the rest of the story.

The day following the incident, I was able to retrieve all the insurance information and called Dr. Paul. His receptionist, who was so polite and accommodating, was able to get me in immediately. I ran out of the building and up to their new office. When I arrived, I discovered that it had been 9 years since my last visit. Boy, does time fly.

After a brief chat and two shots of Novocaine, he confirmed that I had broken "a chunk" off my molar. So much so, that a crown was necessary. The decision was made to "plug" (my word, not his) it and come back to do the permanent on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning I was up extra early and on my way to see Dr. Paul. Turns out I was there for a little more than two hours. Why so long for a crown??? Technology!

After the temporary was removed and all the "debris" was cleaned out, I was waiting for the goop portion of the visit. You know, this is where they put a very sticky, clay like substance in your mouth to take an imprint in order to make a cast of the tooth - then you have to come back days later after the crown is made at the manufacturers. Thanks to technology, this is no longer necessary. Everything was done at the office while I was there.

Dr. Paul took digital pictures of my tooth (lower and upper) with a computer and began working on the template for my crown. I sat and watched him do this, the geek side of me (very small side) was intrigued. The system he was using reminded me of a very much improved, sophisticated auto-cad application. I wanted to ask him questions, but thought it best not to - didn't want to distract him from designing my crown.

Shortly after that I was placed in another room while the crown is made. For the next 30-40 minutes I was sitting in a massage chair watching Regis and Kelly. Talk about relaxing, I want one of those chairs.

Once the crown was ready, it was placed on the tooth and found to be a perfect fit and permanently attached. Actually, it looked better than my tooth did in its hay-day.

I was however told I would feel some discomfort/pain and should take some over the counter pain reliever. In order to spare the squeamish - because of the way the molar broke, he had to do some work involving the gum line. I was also advised to stay away from eating or drinking anything that is cold. Everything should be back to normal within a week, he said.

Did you know the gums are the fastest healing tissue within the body. I didn't know that.

It's been four days and my mouth is feeling better each day. I am soooooo glad I went back to Dr. Paul. I was so tired of the sterile offices, and impersonal treatment by dentists who see you as an insurance number and not a person in need of help.

Dr. Paul is not like that. He (and his staff) actually care about their patients - it's good to know that there are doctors out there who treat people because they care and not solely for the money.

Until next time....