Yes...I've had a comprehensive exam of my whole mouth, complete set of xrays, and all that jazz. I felt horrible as they went through the list of everything wrong in my mouth. This is a different dentist than the one I saw in January...but they pulled four teeth all at once and those were all pulled because they were infected and HAD to go. It is my understanding that almost every tooth except the bottom front four have cavities. The dentist said that he can visualize the tooth as they were prepping it and he really did not think the tooth would have been infected because it didn't look like it had progressed that far (though it DID have a cavity because apparently they all do).

Our plan is to pull 12 and create that new bridge that uses 13 as an anchor...but we also discussed the possibility of having it go all the way to 14 if 13 doesn't look good when he gets in there. I know my teeth are bad...I really don't fault the dentist for this sort of thing because realistically I know that my whole mouth is in bad shape. When those 4 teeth were pulled in January it did a lot to improve the health in my mouth because all of them were infected.

I think the problem is that yes...we are trying to tackle the worst most obvious areas first...but on the other hand we have to start somewhere because I can't have it all done at once. Though admittedly it seems very tempting to want all my teeth just pulled and get some dentures and move on. I know that's not a good option...but depending on how this plays out I may end up there anyway. Frustrating...but facts are facts.

All I can do now is hope that this is the last obstacle I face this year and that things get resolved with this new plan a few weeks from now when I am able to get in to get this work done. Well...that and hope that the pain meds and antibiotics help enough to get me through until then without being miserable. Despite the pain and everything I am still happy that I have chosen to move forward with treatment. I wish things were going smoother but years of neglect do have consequences and unfortunately it seems to be my time to pay up.