Anywho... a little back story: I've had Boeing insurance since July, which is really great stuff. I had finally gotten around to finding a new dentist within the network and setting up a "new patient exam" and cleaning last December (08). Everything was going fine until they started speaking in their dental code talk to one another in a very concerning tone. I would have asked what was going on or what they found, but my mouth was filled with instruments and fingers. Lovely. I go to check out with the receptionist and from HER I find out that I apparently have 5 cavities, between my teeth where they have to drill down the middle of them to cut out the decay. I'm in disbelief. I've never had any problems with my teeth, I'm a regular Sonicare user, flosser, and I use high intensity flouride mouthwash daily. Just a year ago I was at my old dentist and they didn't see anything, on xrays or by eye. Usually if cavities are forming, they don't form overnight- there would be warning signs of decay eating through the enamel.
I didn't accept this since it was such a DRASTIC change to my previous experiences. I got a second opinion from a dentist close to my house. She was a really nice lady and sat me down in her office, rather than in a chair right off the bat, to talk about my concerns. She then went over my xrays thoroughly and then took some peeks in my mouth. She said there was one small area that was weaker, but with some flouride treatments it should heal itself. As for the other 4 "cavities"? No evidence whatsoever.
I did, however, have a spot on my far back molar that was sealed when I was a kid since the pit was pretty deep. The problem with sealants is that if you drink a lot of soda, which I used to, the sealants' edges can weaken, allowing enamel-eating sunstances in. The sealant fell out about 2 years ago, but my dentist at that time said there was no decay, just a pit still. It was a pretty deep pit and food was always getting stuck in there throughout the day. I knew it was only a matter of time before it turned into a cavity. This was the whole reason I made the december appointment to begin with. But instead it turned into a 5+ the pit cavity ordeal.
The new dentist I went to go see for the second opinion noted that the pit actually had barely any decay in it, but it would be a good idea to fill anyway. So I cancelled my appointmenet to have my whole mouth drilled on with the first dentist and made an appointment to get my pit filled with this new one. Then I got sick and had to move my appointment forward a week. Then the snow hit! Had to move my appointment forward one more day. Then, finally, yesterday evening was my appointment. I was so worked up over this whole ordeal that I was super nervous. They walked me back and the first thing the dentist said was that I wouldn't need to be numbed because the small amount of damaged enamel was on the very top and would require about 2 seconds of polishing. It literally was 2 seconds and then they put in the filling material. Much better :) Since that only took about 5 minutes total, I asked if they could repair my front tooth while I was there. A few years ago a small chunk of enamel on my front tooth just...fizzled away. It was the weirdest thing. I must have hit it on something. Anyway, they agreed and another 5 minutes later and my tooth was completely restored! You can't even tell it was ever chipped. So awesome.
So basically, this whole thing worked out great. And I got a copy of my xrays! They're pretty cool to look at.
GROSS SARA.
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