For the most part, I have been not scheduling appointments that I typically would have right now. I do need to schedule some things, like some annual doctor appointments, but I’m really trying to wait it out until I feel like things are safer. For my doctor appointments, I’m lucky because they are at a medical office and not the main hospital (so no COVID patients are there), but I still don’t want to go in until things feel safer since I would be around sick people.
Even with the appointments that I have that are not fun, I typically don’t avoid them or put them off. I hate blood work, but I will do it when I have to. I hate going to the dentist, but since I usually have to go 3 times a year I will do it. I don’t skip appointments. I know things will get worse if I do skip them.
I was supposed to go to the dentist in April. Everything was shut down then, so I didn’t have my appointment. I think they might have been open for real emergencies, but a cleaning isn’t an emergency. When they re-opened for normal appointments in May, I hesitated to go back. I knew I needed to, but there is obviously no way to wear a mask while at the dentist. So I said as long as it was ok with them, I wanted to wait until the summer or things felt safer. They said it would be fine. And that was my plan until last week.
I have had a lot of dental work done and I know that nothing will last forever. But I don’t want things to need to be redone and I work hard to make sure my teeth and all the work that has been done is in good shape. But sometimes you can do everything right and you still need work. Last week, I was eating dinner and one of my crowns felt loose. I don’t know how to describe the feeling, I could just tell something was not right. I bit down and it seemed to get the crown back in place. But I knew that I had to get that looked at because it could mean a lot of different things that aren’t good.
So I called to make an appointment to get my crown looked at and figured I would do my cleaning as well since I would be going in. I have had a loose crown before and they were just able to reglue it. I was hoping that would be the case, but I was prepared for something worse. And unfortunately, it was something worse.
I’m lucky that this happened because the reason my crown got loose was that I had a tiny cavity on my gumline. That cavity made my tooth not be the same shape, so the crown didn’t fit perfectly anymore. And the glue was getting a bit loose too because it was shifting. There is no way to make the original crown work, so I had to get everything done for a new one. But since I already had a crown, most of the hard work was already done. They had to do a little drilling to remove the cavity, but it was so fast that I didn’t need to be numbed for it. Then they made a mold of my tooth for the new one. And because the original crown was close to fitting correctly, they were able to clean it and reuse it to be my temporary crown. It doesn’t fit perfectly, but it’s good enough for now.
I’ll be going back in about a week for my permanent crown and for my teeth cleaning. I didn’t get the cleaning done since it’s better to do that once the new permanent crown is in. Right now, things are just too temporary and loose to do a good cleaning. But at least going in for that appointment I know that they won’t be finding anything wrong with me. I had a full exam and full x-rays while I went in for this first appointment. So the next one should be easy enough.
Just like my afternoon at urgent care, I guess this is a way to add some variety in my life. It’s not exactly something fun to do, but it was necessary. And I do feel better knowing that I’m not putting off my dentist appointment anymore. I know things will still be crazy when I’m there in a week. But maybe by the time I have my next appointment after that in 4 months, things will be a bit more normal and my only stress about going to the dentist will be the dentist and not how to stay safe from COVID.
You Might Also Like
Surprises At The Dentist (or Guess I Have A Few More Appointments)
Another Year Another Dentist Panic (or One Medications Overriding Another)
Finishing Up At The Dentist (or This Is Even Harder When You Feel Bad)
Another Dentist Visit (or Panicking About Panicking)
Last Dentist Appointment For A While (or Not Really A Quick Appointment)
Time For Dental Work (or Maybe My MRIs Prepared Me For This)
