January 21, 2010

Snaggalishous

Monday night I did, in fact, do a full face plant on the sidewalk. I lost half of my incisor tooth (the one next to the two big front teeth). No blood, minimal scraping on my face and just a slightly sore head and neck. Jrex was just relieved it wasn't worse (obviously!). I spent the evening alternating the frozen peas and the frozen corn so I could apply the bag to the whole left side of my face. It worked, I didn't bruise at all.

Tuesday was supposed to be a comp day after I worked 33 out of 48 hours over the weekend. Instead, I woke at 8 AM and started calling dentists to find someone to fix me. I found a woman locally who took my insurance and who had a cancellation. Phew! Three hours later, I had a root canal, a metal post being ordered from the lab, and a perfectly matched temporary tooth. I guess it's a two-stage process from here: in a couple weeks they put in the metal post, then two weeks after that, they cover that with a crown. Each time, the dentist makes a temporary tooth from scratch.

The whole time this was happening I thought about how amazingly blessed and pampered I am: I have a doctor on call to ask if I need to go into the hospital, I have multiple dentists in walking distance from my house, AND I have dental insurance. I thought about the health care bill and how many people might not gain these options, I thought about Haiti where a broken tooth is the LEAST of anyone's worries.

And yet the vain chick in me was SO relieved I didn't have to go into work with a broken front tooth.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so relieved you're relieved. And yes, you are blessed.

It's great that you also saw the moral implications of your experience.

Snickollet said...

Oh, dear! Glad you were not more seriously hurt and that you were able to see a dentist right away. Going to work snaggletoothed, while being a totally first-world problem indeed, is really not appealing.

Rachel said...

So sorry you had to spend your comp day at the dentist. But it sounds like you're on the mend, at least.

B.E.C.K. said...

Omigosh...OUCH!! I'm so glad you're on the way to getting it completely fixed and feeling better! I know what you mean about being aware of how lucky you are to have good health care. I think about that every time I'm able to even buy an OTC remedy for something. Definitely not a blessing to take for granted.

OTR sister said...

By the way, I like the new design.

Asianmommy said...

Wow! Glad things got taken care of so quickly for you.