It goes without saying that my job has become a bit more stressful. And one of the wonderful side effects of stress is clenching your teeth at night. I've become so good at it that I cracked one of my molars. But after going through the trouble of getting it crowned, the pain still returned. So I had to choose between a root canal or completely replacing it. Since the crack could eventually cause the tooth to break, I opted to pull the sucker. This was a few months ago.
Now that my mouth has healed, it's time for phase 2! Today they drilled a large hole in my jaw and inserted a monster screw right into it. I'm still numb, so I can't comment on the pain. Tonight should be fun, fun, fun. The oddest thing about it was the torque of the drill on my jaw. This was no delicate dentist drill, the kind ordinarily used for little fillings. It was a Black and Decker with flames painted on the side. The dentist had to wear a hard hat. I had stepped into an episode of "This Old Mouth."
So phase 3 will be in another month or so, after the bone grows around the screw. That's when I get my new, fake tooth.
