Rant #1,761: Truth Decay

For the past couple of weeks, and through my trip to Korea, my teeth have been killing me.

They hurt like the Dickens, and as I am typing this, they are hurting me right now.

They hurt me at work, they hurt me when I try to go to sleep, and they hurt me, in particular, when I eat.

My teeth have been a mess the past year or two. After more than 30 years of having had absolutely no problems with my teeth, today, at age 59, I feel like my head is going to explode.

The latest episode--and the worst in my estimation--revolved around a crown that I need on the right side of my mouth, all the way in the back.

I had what amounted to a double root canal on the tooth, so I started to eat entirely on the left side so that I would avoid eating on the worked on right side.

The left side always felt faulty in my mouth anyway. It kind of stung, but the pain never lasted more than a second or two, so I felt confident that the left side could withstand whatever I would eat on that side.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

As the procedure to get a crown on the right side continued--I still don't have that crown, only a filled cavity--the pain on my left side increased.

It is now at the point where I have it when I don't even eat on that side, as I have been forced to eat on the right side, which also hurts, but only on occasion.

I went to the dentist as an emergency patient this past Saturday, the day after I came home from my Korea trip, and the dentist found nothing, and I mean nothing, wrong in my mouth.

I told him that the pain continued, even if he found nothing. He said that he was sorry, but based on X-rays and visuals, he found absolutely nothing wrong with my teeth.

A few weeks earlier, my wife and I went to our regular doctor for a checkup, and as he stuck the wood in my mouth and asked me to say "AAAH," I asked him on a lark to see if he could see anything in my mouth.

He said that while he could not help me, yes, he saw irritation on the left side.

So how come the dentist doesn't see this?

I think, now that I am a couple of days removed from my last dentist visit, that all the dentist is looking at is his handiwork on my mouth, which he has declared to be fine.

He is not looking for irritation, so he doesn't see the agony I am now going through.

Yes, it is time to look for a new dentist. But I have to have the crown procedure done before I do that.

But maybe what comes around goes around.

As a child, my teeth were not very good, solid and strong, never hurting me, but growing in every which way possible.

I once had between eight and 12 baby teeth pulled at one sitting, because they were not falling out like they should have been. I remember the day well, and believe it or not, the pulling didn't hurt that much, because most of the teeth were falling out and just needed a little push to fully come out.

I wore braces for a number of years, and quite honestly, once those braces came off, my teeth settled, and for decades, I never had a problem.

I laughed as much as anybody when I was told I had "black man's teeth," wherein the roots of the teeth are very long, much like men's teeth of those of African extraction.

But those long roots aren't a laughing matter now, because that is where the problem is, where the decay is happening, and in my mind, I don't think that even with root canal, they are getting deep enough into the problem.

I feel I may need a specialist, perhaps even a gum specialist, to really find out what is wrong with my mouth, but for right now, I need to stick with my dentist, see what he can do for me, and see if anything subsides once the crown is finally put in.

The problem is that I have to wait until November to get this done, and no, I am not a happy camper about that wait.

I had pain in Korea, will have pain on my upcoming cruise, and to be away and suffer pain like this really isn't too much fun, especially when I am being told that there is nothing wrong.

My ear is staring to hurt on the left side too, so yes, I am a mess.

But I am being told that there is nothing wrong, so I have to keep telling myself that, even though I know it is not true.

What more can I do to pacify myself at this point in time?

My teeth hurt, my mouth is a mess, and I don't seem to have any recourse.

Any suggestions?