Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet a lovely young female. Unfortunately, she was in a great deal of pain on the left side of her face, and she was very frightened. I thought, “This is no way for two people to meet.” After viewing her x-rays and examining her mouth, we found that the cause of her pain was tooth decay that had infected the nerve in her upper left first molar. And we learned that the reason that she was frightened was that I was a dentist! For her, at this point, there were only two choices to relieve her pain and remove the infection. Either remove the tooth, or perform a root canal. This poor girl was beside herself. She didn’t want to lose her tooth. But she didn’t have the funds available yet to have the root canal done. And she had no dental insurance. After a lot of hand-holding, listening and analyzing her situation, she decided to purchase our “Smile Umbrella.” This is the dental plan that we currently offer to our patients who do not have insurance. Now with the plan, she was able to easily afford a GPD procedure. We anesthetized her. This relieved her pain within about 2 minutes. We then opened into her tooth, then into its nerve canals. We removed most of the infected nerves. We then placed a soothing disinfecting medicine and a temporary filling. Within a day or two this tooth will become comfortable, and the pain in her cheek will go away. Then a root canal can be performed at a time that is more convenient for her. The reason I tell this story is that this patient had for months nursed holes in her teeth caused by decay. Had she overcome her fear and seen a dentist a year ago, this might have been avoided with a simple filling. So please make that appointment for a checkup. It’s much easier, less painful, and less expensive when we can catch things early.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 20:09:08 +0000
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