Drilling for brains...

Dentist, 9.25 this morning.


Ostensibly to discuss the situation with my crowned tooth, ie is it still glued in place ?

It was fitted on top of a drilled out root three years ago "It'll last forever" the dentist promised and indeed it did last ..... until just before christmas when it fell out just as I was starting a very nice fruit curry in Omars restaurant in Bradford (highly recommended, Omars, not losing a tooth in your curry).

Went back to the dentist before christmas, different dentist to the one who had previously drilled forever up into my head, and after discussing all sorts of wierd treatment plans costing up to £3000 just to replace one fallen out tooth he finally agreed to temporarily glue the old one back in until we reviewed the option in January (theres a blog entry in december somewhere for that appointment).

So today was the review, sat in his big pink chair - I'l say this about this new dentist, since he took over from the previous scottish dentist who confirmed everyones preconceptions about tight scotsmen, he has spent a lot of money in tarting up the surgery, it now resembles a very avant garde furniture showroom in minimalist tones of beige and strangely shaped chairs in the waiting room, and when you walk into the actual surgery room he's got this huge vivid pink couch for a dentist chair which you lie down on, and at the press of a button are swivelled almost upside down whilst tools and shelves and drills and stuff whirr into place just above your head, its work £30 just to ride on his pink lounger chair.

So he tells me that the plan today is to remove the crown that he glued back into place and redrill out the root filling, clean the base of the tooth up and get the root ready for refilling next time - all of which comes as a bit of a suprise to me because the old crown is still glued firmly in place and I'd be happy leaving it at that.

Before I know whats happened he's pressed the button and me and the big pink bed are tilted upside down, the drills and other good stuff are whizzed into position above my face and he's got a needle in my gum and hes smiling down at me "everything alright ?"

He ragged the old tooth out and set about drilling the old filling (which he hesitates to call a crap job but I can tell he's thinking that) out of the root, which having seen the xray I already know is several inches long and stops somewhere just above the bridge of my nose, OK thats an exageration but it feels like the drill goes up that far, its certainly numb all the way up that side of my face.

He's got it all drilled out now and he's filed the old root base down to accept a new crown and after all that he's stuck the old crown back on top of it warning that it might not be as secure this time but when I go back in two weeks time he'll fill the root properly and measure up for a new crown and before I know what has happened I'm actually thanking him for making my face numb and I'm back out in his reception with a new appointment and his receptionist is saying "we'll just take £100 this time..."

Thats not bad pay for half an hours work and I'm left wondering what the next appointment is going to cost, I reckon I'll be lucky to get to the end of all this for less than £500 which is still £2500 less than the treatment that he wanted to do, but where did the National Health Service disappear to all of a sudden ?



Update at 3pm - I've just yawned and felt a crack in the tooth, the glue obviously hadn't set properly and now it wobbles - bollox, I'm not going back though, it'll have to wobble for two weeks, or maybe fall out again.