I thought it might be good to give an update. It's been a couple of weeks since I went to the oral surgeon and then I went out of town so I'm just getting time to write.

I think the oral surgeon was great. When I first checked in at his front desk I showed my x-rays to the receptionist. I could tell she was alarmed by the x-ray and immediately went to the doctor to show him. He saw me right away--no waiting. He had a cool 3-D x-ray machine ($185!) that went all around my head for the scan. FORTUNATELY, that machine showed not nearly as much infection. He said the other dentist's x-ray was not representative.

He told me what he would do if it was his mouth...he suggested getting tooth #30 redone in a new root canal. I questioned him quite a bit about this and he said extracting it would create more problems down the line. He gave me the name of a endondontist he recommended. He also said he only gets paid for extractions but in this case, he wouldn't extract that tooth at this point in time. He said he would leave the molar next to it alone but he would remove both wisdom teeth on that side of my mouth. He said most importantly to get the re-root done. Honestly, I was a bit worried but in the entire Los Angeles area, he's one of the top oral surgeons. He spent a lot of time explaining things and seemed very sincere.

Thank goodness those antibiotics last month helped so I have not had hardly pain although I'm making an appointment for a re-root later this week.