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New Grill
Dr. Wife has been blessed with many things.
She’s beautiful, she’s incredibly brilliant, she’s one of the most driven people I’ve ever met, and she has awesome British teeth.
Ok, so noone is perfect, and you can’t do anything about the genes you’re born with, so she does what she can. She flosses regularly, she gets her teeth cleaned twice a year, she brushes… No, she brushes alot. In fact I have to tell her to stop brushing sometimes… Like when I’m watching TV, and I notice that there’s been two comercial breaks and she’s still brushing…
But sometimes no amount of prophilactics can stop the inevitable. About 7 years ago it started. If I remember correctly, she was in her first year of medical school and she had just recovered from a sinus infection. Then the tooth aches came. Well, it turns out she had one of her front teeth abscess. One root canal and one filling later, she was back in business.
This pattern of sinus infection, tooth abscess, root canal, filling continued at a frequency of about once per year over the next 3 years.
So for the last two years, she has planned on getting a “grill”. (well, it just recently became a dream for a new grill after some random rap video she saw where folks were waxing poetic about their bling bling grills) And when the time finally came when my employeer offered some decent dental coverage, we decided to go for it.
So Wednesday, the process began.
After Impression after impression, and hours of drilling and fitting, she came home with a temporary grill that’s got her all talking funny and what not… So now she’s got a set of odd fitting temps, a throbbing heavy mouth , and all sorts of instructions to follow like how to eat, what to do and not do, and how she needs to brush like 5 times a day (despite the fact that it hurts her to brush).
Dr. Wife’s comment last night while we’re watching TV:
I don’t ever want to brush my teeth again. Yeah, same person that I have to convince to stop brushing…
Big thanks to Bayou Self for the pic.
January 13th, 2006 at 9:49 am
I have the same dental problems as your wife (I think I’m on my 4th or 5th root canal now). My dentist says part of my problem is tooth grinding while asleep. Anyhow, about the only thing that can be done other than brush floss and fluoride mouthwash is having a good dental insurance policy. I have two policies – one covers less expensive tasks like fillings and xrays and the other covers dental surgeries such as root canals.
January 13th, 2006 at 9:58 am
I can so empathize with your wife. Up until the age of 17, not a single cavity, despite years of not taking good care of my teeth. Now, genetics have kicked in. I think I’ve passed the point of having more false enamel in my head than natural.
I’m seriously considering asking the dentist in a few weeks if “having thugs take me behind the building and kicking the remaining teeth out” is covered under my policy. Hey, maybe I can make toothlessness as cool as bald…
January 13th, 2006 at 10:03 am
So pardon me cause I’m a moron about this stuff, does she have fake/perm teeth now? I had heard something about a process to drill cermic-type teeth in to your skull but they cost something like $3K per toof.
January 13th, 2006 at 10:01 am
bald is cool?
SWEET!
January 13th, 2006 at 10:07 am
IIRC, she’s getting 4 crowns (to replace the teeth that have had root canals) and 5 or 6 verniers (so that the other teeth match the new crowns).
And no, thankfully this is WAY cheaper than $3K per tooth, but it’s definitely not cheap either.
January 13th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Cool, I just found out I’m getting braces next month. Well found out is a relative term, I have needed them since I was 15 but I always got out of them. Then when I was 18 and tried to get the, my health insurance wouldn’t cover, now I have the mad dental plan that will give me the purty mouth that only Delieverence could appreciate.
January 13th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Best of luck to your wife.
At least it’s better than what happened to my uncle. He had some rare tooth disease (can’t remember what it’s called.) Starting about age 16, he’d frequently wake up with little tooth chips in his mouth when he’d wake up. By age 17, he had a full set of false teeth on the top & bottom. He’s now 54, so he’s been wearing dentures for 37 years now!
All this talk of teeth is making me think of that Ludacris song…
“What about diamonds and gold, is that what you keep in your mouth?
What in the world is in that CASE, what you got in that CASE?”
(PS – I don’t listen to Ludacris, I just like that one song…)
January 13th, 2006 at 11:20 am
It’s ok Nico, your “Luda” secret is safe with me, and the rest of the internet…
January 13th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Does she have a sign on her shirt that says “Pardon Our Progress”?
Poor Brandi– we’ll have to get together for dinner or something when the new teefies are in so she can test them out.