Restoration Of Pearly Whites - Part 1

Was all psyched up and prepared for root canal and crowning, and of course, the pain to start last Friday. But x-rays reveal a much more complicated case... All of my four wisdom teeth plus a molar are infected and are seemingly “time bombs“ which have to be extracted asap.

As I had radiotherapy before, my oncologist has to be consulted first, as the gum may not heal properly for someone who has gone through radiotherapy, for example, yours truly here. Thankfully one of my consulting dentist is the daughter of my oncologist, and because my case was a “time bomb“ one, a few text messages settled the go-ahead quickly. Otherwise, with the waiting for official letters and visits and ding dong here and there, it might take ages for the "yes, extraction is ok" answer to come through.

Once my oncologist gave the ok, calls were made to the oral surgeon and the anesthetist. As the wisdom tooth on my lower left grows sideways and is partially embedded, my gum has to be cut. I do not want to feel anything while my gum is being cut, so i chose sedation. When it was confirmed that 25th Aug will be the day I lose 5 teeth, it was discussion time. We threw up a few scenarios, basically wondering whether to start root canal and crowning first, and if the temporary crowns could last long enough till extraction wounds heal and all temporary crowns are fitted to make the final impression for the permanent ones. And we are afraid that the temporary ones would not last...

And thus, the earliest sight of any pearly whites would be early Oct, unless the extraction wounds heal faster than the estimated one month time frame... But still, it is going to be quite some time till all 8-10 teeth are nicely crowned, as the root canal specialist will be only doing 2-3 each visit... I cannot imagine doing all in just 1 or 2 visits, either I'll end up having a locked jaw or the root canal specialist will end up with sore arms muscles and become crossed-eyed.

P/S: For those who want to find out why my teeth are in such horrendous state, please read the previous post