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Oh no, not again
...and other traumas.
(First, an aside: does anyone know how to retrieve older LJ entries? LJ's built in history seems to let me to back in time about 180ish entries. Fortunately that was barely enough time to recover the link below. Unfortunately it means a lot of stuff is now inaccessible to me, unless I have another way to get it. Help, oh LJ gurus of the 'verse!)
Now, the entry I wanted to dig up was This one on yet another reason why I'm a mutant. It's from last June and it records the end of my root canal saga.
Last night I had one of those horrible crack-grinding sounds in my mouth I've been dreading for about the last 17-18 months. I broke a bit off the LEFT bottom molar this time. Once again the tooth has lasted a lot longer than it should have, considering the huge filling in it for the last almost-30 years.
So this AM I hie me off to the dentist's where there's good news and bad news. Good: the X ray shows no decay under the filling so the nerve is alive and a root canal isn't immediately called for. It's possible that it can be dealt with via a structural filling and it could hold for quite a number of years (though it's not a permanent solution).
Bad: the filling and break are both below the gum-line and close to the nerve. So worst case is they try to fill it, it fails, and we're back to root canal and crown. With a little gum surgery thrown in for extra fun. Did the universe fail to get the "I do NOT like pain" message last time around?
To make matters more complex the dentist I saw today insists it needs a white ceramic filling rather than the old-fashioned amalgam. Insurance won't cover that, so that would be $500 or more out of pocket. My pocket isn't in shape to absorb that kind of hit right now. Of course, the worst-case scenario is MORE expensive, but due to the weird suckfulness of dental insurance it's not a huge amount more.
I got a temp filling that should be good for a week or so, and I'm going to another dentist on Monday to discuss treatment options.
As for how the rest of my life is going... well, a morning in the dentist's office at least saved me from a few hours of interminable discussions by morons in my office who are intelligent people except that they're being mule-headed GOONS who seem to think "I like it" and "It's always been that way" are good reasons for making product usability decisions. I'm trying desperately to hold onto the "it doesn't really matter to the universe" concept, but my sense of doing the right thing continues to interfere. Where the hell did I get that inconvenient set of ethics?
(First, an aside: does anyone know how to retrieve older LJ entries? LJ's built in history seems to let me to back in time about 180ish entries. Fortunately that was barely enough time to recover the link below. Unfortunately it means a lot of stuff is now inaccessible to me, unless I have another way to get it. Help, oh LJ gurus of the 'verse!)
Now, the entry I wanted to dig up was This one on yet another reason why I'm a mutant. It's from last June and it records the end of my root canal saga.
Last night I had one of those horrible crack-grinding sounds in my mouth I've been dreading for about the last 17-18 months. I broke a bit off the LEFT bottom molar this time. Once again the tooth has lasted a lot longer than it should have, considering the huge filling in it for the last almost-30 years.
So this AM I hie me off to the dentist's where there's good news and bad news. Good: the X ray shows no decay under the filling so the nerve is alive and a root canal isn't immediately called for. It's possible that it can be dealt with via a structural filling and it could hold for quite a number of years (though it's not a permanent solution).
Bad: the filling and break are both below the gum-line and close to the nerve. So worst case is they try to fill it, it fails, and we're back to root canal and crown. With a little gum surgery thrown in for extra fun. Did the universe fail to get the "I do NOT like pain" message last time around?
To make matters more complex the dentist I saw today insists it needs a white ceramic filling rather than the old-fashioned amalgam. Insurance won't cover that, so that would be $500 or more out of pocket. My pocket isn't in shape to absorb that kind of hit right now. Of course, the worst-case scenario is MORE expensive, but due to the weird suckfulness of dental insurance it's not a huge amount more.
I got a temp filling that should be good for a week or so, and I'm going to another dentist on Monday to discuss treatment options.
As for how the rest of my life is going... well, a morning in the dentist's office at least saved me from a few hours of interminable discussions by morons in my office who are intelligent people except that they're being mule-headed GOONS who seem to think "I like it" and "It's always been that way" are good reasons for making product usability decisions. I'm trying desperately to hold onto the "it doesn't really matter to the universe" concept, but my sense of doing the right thing continues to interfere. Where the hell did I get that inconvenient set of ethics?
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I'm sure actually breaking a tooth makes things different, but I would suggest making sure that the dental office even DOES amalgam fillings before you take their word for it that they can't do it for that purpose.
Good luck with the goons.
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sorry about the dental woes; i get to go back next week for somewhere between 2-5 cavities filled, which will bring the total up to at least ten over the past couple months. wheeee fun. hopefully this time the novocaine will work.
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Is it Ethics? Or a very strong sense of professionalism and pride in one's work? Not that either would lessen the stress, just asking.
Office politics is the same the world over, just to different degrees of insanity. Unfortunately it sounds like you are at the loony bin end of the scale. If the "it doesn't really matter to the universe" concept doesn't work, imagining one's coworkers are the WoW NPC's you're pounding on might help. I used to find batting cages or a driving range where the balls were imagined to be the heads of my coworkers was an awesome stress reducer.
Sorry about the tooth, hon. Hopefully the second dentist will have some better options.
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It's a bull-headed insistence on doing what I see as right. Call that what you like.
I don't think it's office politics here - people are just used to stating their opinions and not having any formal decision-making process. When the decision doesn't accord with their opinion they state their opinion again, more loudly.
Hopefully the second dentist will have some better options.
I'd be happy with some less-expensive options just at the moment.
teeth