Guess that number!

In 2000 I was chewing some hard ice (Bad habit, I know). And I felt my top back right molar crack and pain shot in my head. At the time Emma and I were newly married and we had just found out we were pregnant. We didn't have the money to pay for a fix, but with teeth you have to. So, I shopped around and found the cheapest dentist I could, some fly by night operation out by Randolph. The dentist ground the tooth out and put a cap on it.

Flash forward to 2005 and that tooth started hurting AGAIN. We were in a better position financially so I went to a reputable dentist in San Antonio. He said i'd have to have a root canal done on the tooth. So, I have a root canal done on the tooth, new cap, the works. 2006 rolls by and the darn tooth starts to hurt AGAIN. So, I go back to the dentist and he says I need an apicoectomy. I go in, he cuts through my gums, performs the procedure and I thought I was good to go. At the same time, I had a bump on the roof of my mouth and he wanted to try some new test on me. He performed the test, and said I may have cancer in my mouth. Great I thought I had just beaten death from Congestive Heart Failure a few years ago and some wierd kind of cancer is gonna take me. I go to a oral surgeon in San Antonio and he says it doesn't look like any kind of cancer he's ever seen. It's just a bump, don't worry about it. This is my life, so I bug him untill he does a biopsy. It comes back normal cells.

Feb 2007, the bleeping tooth starts hurting again. This time, I decide I am NOT going back to the same dentist so I go to a endontist here in New Braunfels after the mess i've had with the SA dentist. He takes one look at my x-ray's and his eyes get big. He said it looks like I took a shot in the face from a shotgun. I had Gutta Purcha everywhere in my mouth. I also sitll had an infection in that tooth. So, he does another apicoectomy on that tooth hoping to save it. He tells me it may not work, but he's hopeful. I went back in on April of this year and he saw in my X-Rays another root from this tooth, but instead of terminating in my jaw, the sucker goes all the way up into the palate of my mouth. He said everything looked okay though.

Fast forward to a week ago and I notice a squishy lump over that tooth on my gum. I push on it and it pops. For anyone who's never had a tooth infection, that's what they produce when you have an infection in the roots of your teeth. Hoping it was just a one off, I leave it alone. Well, today Mr. bubble came back and popped again. So, i'm going to call my Endontist the first thing in the morning.

Here is the thing, over the past 8 years i've spent (are you sitting down) over $7,500 on this ONE DAMN TOOTH!! And here it is, still screwed up. I'm thinking tomorrow I will have 2 options pull the tooth and get a bridge or put in a dental implant. Due to the screwup of the SA dentist, I may not have enough good bone left to do a implant without a bone graft. On top of all this, because of that one wayward root I may have to go to a Maxio-Facial surgeon to get that thing removed. So, in the worst case this one tooth will cost me approximately $15,000 in the end due to my retarted mouth. I guess i'll find out tomorrow if I will have a tooth worth the price of most used cars.

Luckily, through my work dental plan and our own savings we can cover it without a problem, although i'd rather spend the money on something else! But, what if we weren't in the place to cover financially something like this? Most Americans aren't in as lucky of a position. Kind of makes me wonder what we have done to ourselves to price out needed help in a range out of the reach of most people. What if my wife and I didn't have the jobs we do? What if we were just barely making it. What would we do to get this fixed? It may not as simple as pulling the tooth because of that wayward root.

I've been one against universal healthcare most of my adult life. But, sitting here thinking about it, i'm not quite so sure anymore. Can we as a society afford of have people suffering ailments that can be addressed if it wasn't for the money issue? I'm just not so sure anymore.

I'll update yall tomorrow on the trials of the tooth.