Dates?

I like dates, both the fruit and the social kind. But I am wondering about giving them up. They have been very irksome to me this week. Oh, I am talking about the fruit kind. I have not been ON a date in quite a while, so I have no hardship with going ON a date with someone.

It all started on Monday. I went on an all day trip to Lake Ozette and hiked the 9.5 mile loop to the beach and back. I rode the motorcycle to and from, that amounted to about 300 miles. By the time I got home, I was hungry so I pulled out the pitted dates to snack on before I made dinner. I like eating dates, they are sweet and are like candy to me. After eating a couple of dates, I bit into one that still had it's pitt. When I bit down on the date, I broke a piece off a lower molar, (No.30). It did not hurt, but a large chunk came off leaving very sharp edges. Drat!

Early in the morning I called the dentist and got right in. The dentist took an xray and said that even though the part that broke off did not compromise the tooth, there was an another crack that could be a problem. In addition, there appeared to be some infection at the end of one of the roots. So, after the sharp edges were ground down and a temporary filling installed, the office staff made me an appointment to see the endontist to see about a root canal procedure for that tooth.

Tuesday morning I arrived at the endontist office. He took another xray. He could see the extra crack and after looking through his microscope, determined that the crack was "old" and that the tooth was compromised and that was causing the infection and the nerve was already dead, thus no pain. Furthermore, his xray showed some decay on the adjoining tooth under the front edge of the crown on the adjacent tooth. So his recommendation was that the tooth should be extracted. A bridge could be installed, unless the adjacent crown and tooth could not support the bridge. Drat again!

I was then referred to the oral surgeon later in the morning. He looked at the xrays and described how he would break the tooth into pieces to extract it and highly recommended conscious sedation. Since I am a wimp about these things, it sounded good to me. He also was concerned about the decay on the adjacent tooth, but would defer to my dentists about how to proceed. He also suggested an implant. Triple drat!

So, after a stressful week (not just related to the tooth), my procedure was scheduled for Friday at 1415 and later was moved earlier to 0945. A friend took me to the office and the great staff took good care of me. It was over soon. Of course, I was not aware of anything going on. I was back home by 1100. I don't remember much later, I was sleepy, but not wanting to sleep and as usual with me, I was goofy! After my escort left, I drowsed and changed the gauze in my mouth every hour or so. By the evening, the bleeding had stopped and I finally I got something to eat. I slept well at night and never had to take any pain medications. The oral surgeon and I agreed not to have a prescription for pain medication anyway. I took a little ibuprophen when I went to bed.

So now I have an uncomfortable hole where a tooth used to be. This is my first adult tooth every pulled for a problem(I had one pulled for clearance when I had braces).Now I need to see the dentist to find out what the future repair will be. I am sure that whatever the outcome, it will be very costly.

So, maybe I should give up dates....the fruit kind! I still like to go ON dates!

The offending pitt!