Back in the day when I was working for the Court and traveling across the country to convince Judges and others to try using the Internet for filing pleadings with Court offices after paper having been the sacred material since the beginning of jurisprudence (1997-2009), I had a dental problem. That problem made public speaking a bit on an adventure so I sought out dental help which took the form of every tooth in my mouth enduring a root canal with a cap then being applied and planted via a small spike into the remaining root. It took several all-day trips to the dentist office. It took a lot of money. And the result was gorgeous and seemed very durable.
When I retired in 2009, one of the lower teeth decided to work loose and it needed to be replanted almost daily. And now, these many years later, it needs to be replanted multiple times a day. And two weeks ago one of the top teeth decided to jump ship – twice. So far it has remained planted after the second escape attempt but it is loose none the less.
Today I finally saw a Dentist who is more like a family friend having taken care of my sister and her two kids and having taken care of Mom after her second fall last year that planted her upper plate firmly into the roof of her mouth. She worked Mom back to having a good plate in place and she is a good and kind dentist and person.
After listening to the stories about my last 10 months of cancer battle, and after taking multiple xrays she reviewed the pictures with me and recommended that dentures would be much more cost effective as a solution than trying to save these planted caps. Dentures!
We will wait until I am no longer on blood thinner to do the extraction work that will be required to do this work. Dentures. And I finish the herceptin delivery in June and expect the port to be removed fairly soon after that. Dentures. Did all that I have been through contribute to this outcome – maybe – but come on, dentures?? Vanity should be the least of my vices now but this denotes something about aging that I am just not ready to feel fully. Oh well, survival is the name of the game now – not vanity.