Dental appointments - arrrggghhhh

I had a dental appointment yesterday afternoon. Before the dentist did the scaling & thorough cleaning, he checked one of my bottom left tooth at my request (as it occasionally gave very slight pain). He recommended that the metallic filling in that left tooth be removed & a crown be inserted over that left tooth in place of the filling. This would mean that I needed 2 more dental appointments! Apart from that bottom left tooth, the other teeth were fine - dentist gave them the thumbs up. But still, I got those 2 more appointments.

So I went back again today for the first of the 2 extra appointments. The dentist removed the metallic filling from that left tooth, & inserted a temporary crown over it. He will arrange for a permanent crown to be prepared, & this will be inserted at the next appointment (he will call when the permanent crown is ready, & I will arrange for the next appointment). And my goodness, the whole process felt like construction works as a result of the drilling to remove the old metallic filling. No wonder nobody likes a dental visit. To be fair, I was given some anaesthetics before the drilling commenced, so that removed a lot of the pain. But still, I could feel some pain. And I prayed like never before, during all that drilling!

Getting the crown for the left tooth will cost a bomb. How much I pay will depend on how much (or little) my private health fund will cover; the less they cover, the more I will have to pay out of my own pocket. All of that will be looked into after the second appointment - I will pay up whatever I have to pay up. Not looking forward to that. Arrggghhh.....

As a result of today's dental appointment, the left side of my mouth was numb for the next few hours. So when I had lunch with Mark at Indooroopilly shopping centre, I ate my McDonald's meal exclusively through the right side of my mouth. After lunch, we watched the action film Taken, featuring Liam Neeson. Very good movie; I thoroughly enjoyed it. The numbness on the left side of my mouth mostly subsided by the time the movie finished - which was a good thing. Hopefully, there will be no more such dental work (i.e. the crown installation) needed in future....