Well that's overwith.  For now, anyway.

I had moved the date for a crown on the one tooth that had lost the filling, up from the original date of Sept 29th to today, Sept 17th.  There hadn't been any pain and everything went well over the last week while I waited.

Occasionally, I'd get a sharp pain down under the tooth, but it was a quick sharp pain, and then ended.  Everything else was fine.

And then, yesterday afternoon, I got to thinking about those quick pains.  And I remembered that earlier in the year, in the spring and in June, I had more of those pains then.  And I got thinking, what if those little pains are indicative of something else, something worse.  And then I convinced myself that it all meant something was really wrong with the roots, like a root canal.  And I don't want root canals, so that would mean they'd have to rip the tooth out.  But maybe I wouldn't have to tell them about the pains.  But then, if I didn't, what if went through all the money and stuff for the crown and then just a year later, they have to rip the tooth out because of root damage?  Or so my thinking went.

*SIGH*

So I was pretty well stressed all day and had worked myself into a tizzy by the time I actually got to the dentist's office.  When I got there, I told the dentist about it, he said he'd take a look and see if I needed a root canal or not.  And after he got in there and looked, he just went ahead with the crown prep.  So I guess the short, sharp pains really aren't anything.  Hopefully.

But the crown prep....that involved drilling the tooth, well, basically away.  Essentially getting rid of the tooth.  And that drill....oh the sound, the smell of burning, the taste of the flying bits of tooth, the feeling of them in my mouth.....ick.  I hated it!  There was no pain, the novocaine was working quite well.  But i didn't like it all, grimacing all the way through.  Then, after that, all that remained was to take the impression and put the temp crown on.  The whole freakin thing took less than half an hour.

And now, after all that, and $325 later *SIGH* I just have to wait until the 29th (my original appointment) to get the actual crown.

And of course, here's some pics:

Just prior to leaving the house.  See the anxiety, and hesitancy?

In the chair, post drilling, while waiting for the impression to take.

Afterwards, back home.  Exhausted and relieved.

POLT