New Crown and Essix a Thing of the Past

So I saw my dentist on Monday and he put my new crown on! I'm very happy with it, it matches my teeth now and I don't feel so self conscious. I did get a bit of disconcerting news though. It seems that I have had some root re-absortion on my upper front teeth. One tooth is at less then 50%. Now why this happens is not really known. So people have more of a genetic predisposition for it, other times it could be caused by trauma such as my surgery, or from orthodontic treatment, however, the xrays of my teeth at my removal date showed all of my roots looking fine, so its something that has happened in the last 6 months.

New crown and finished smile
I have been having a lot of discomfort in my front right incisor. It has been wiggly and really uncomfortable when I brush, or try to bite into anything. It just so happened that I had an appointment with the ortho for my retainer check the day after I got my new crown. I talked to him about my loose tooth, and the dentist sent over some xrays showing my roots. He said that yes my roots had shrunk a bit, but that as long as we have at least 50% on them, and there is no bone degeneration it should not pose a really issue for me in terms of losing teeth. In order to help stablize them, get rid of my wiggly tooth, and just give them a bit more strength he decided to put a bonded retainer on the top teeth from bicupid to bicuspid. I'm so loving it! My essix is a thing of the past and it is really nice to not have to bother with it anymore.


New bonded retainer on top

Since having my surgery and expansion, things in the cheek area have been pretty fitted. With the essix I would wake up with grooves in my cheeks from biting down on them. Today was the first day I awoke with no cheek grooves. I slept like a baby, AND best of all, I can now bite into sandwiches, and brush my teeth with no pain. I love this new retainer so much better. Now yes it has a downfall. I can no longer floss freely, I have to use a threader floss and do the uppers an lowers with a mirror. It is a small price to pay for the benefits though, and my bite feels spot on now.

Other then that there is not much more to report. I'm still healing, numbness is still abating, and I'm still glad everyday that I went through all of this.

Before and After Brandy

Busy Week at the Dentist

So I decided to get my front crown fixed right away, so I had my implant seated Monday and was back at the dentist today to have my old crown removed, and replaced with a temp. I learned a lot today about how old crowns are replaced. What they do is saw down the center of them, then pry under the edges and pop them off. My dentist then removed the glue leaving me with basically a little tooth stump that the old crown was previously attached to. He had to call the guy from the place that makes the crowns, the one that will be baking the porcelin on it, because it seems that my teeth are pretty white! He could not find a perfect color match, the brightest sample was just a hair to white, and the one below it was too yellow. He had the guy come over and personally check it out. He said something about using the brightest one but adding a bit of blue to it to tone it down. I'm assuming since he is the expert that he knows what he is doing, and he was taking very detailed notes about it so I'm sure it will all turn out well when its done. I'm excited that I'm finally going to have matching front teeth!

The crown is supposed to be ready to go by the 14th so I can get it on before heading out on vacation. So far my essix retainer still fits with the temporary crown, but it is possible I might need a new one once the crown is done so I need to have time to get in and get it, if that is the case.

Here is my sore looking gums with the temp crown on it. It actually looks much better then I thought it would for a temp.

I also got some more good news....I have some dark spots(what I thought were stains) between my front tooth and my second incisor. I was asking the dentist today about it and what we could do to get rid of it. He said that it is not staining but composite that a previous dentist used to fill in some very small irregularities. He said he had no idea why the dentist used such a dark color as it doesn't match my teeth at all. He also said that he left a big glob of it on the back of my front tooth. So...he shaved that down and told me that at a later appointment he can remove the old composite and put some new stuff that will match my teeth and eliminate the dark spots. I was so excited! Soon my teeth will all look good.

I know your probably wondering what I'm talking about, but trust me this stuff is not in my head, it really is visible, and since I can get it fixed, AND it's all covered by insurance why not do it?

Molar Implant Finally Complete!

So today was the big day! and while I was very excited to get my implant finally done, I must admit it was a little bit anti-climatic!

So here is how it went. Once I arrived and was seated, the doctor proceeded to take the abutement off of my implant. He then took the newly made crown and put it into the implant screw. He was checking for fit, to make sure the contacts on each side weren't too tight for me to floss. They were (too tight) so he proceeded to put the implant in and take it out about three more times, each time grinding it down just a bit more. When we finally got a perfect fit, he pressed the implant into place by holding my jaw bone and using his thumb to press it in tight. Full View of my Lowers now

He then had me bite down on some green contact paper, and rub my teeth back and forth to make sure they all fit. At this point things looked good so he used a special screwdriver thing, that goes through the screw in the center of the fake tooth, to screw it down and into the implant fitting very tightly. Once that was done he had the nurse take an X-ray to make sure it was seated properly. It was but just for good measure he tightened it one more time. Then he filled the hole on top with some composite, lazor lighted it til dry, ground off any additional cement with the drill, and used the pick to get a couple last bits. Then I was done!

Top, distance view of implant

I must say it is weird to not have that space in my mouth anymore, but so nice to be able to chew on the other side now. It really is amazing how real they feel. It totally feels like one of my regular teeth. Much better then my bridge on the other side does. Too bad they are so expensive otherwise I would replace all my crowns with them.

Close up view of implant

Basically that was it, but we are going to replace the crown in front that I hate so much in the next couple of weeks (I want it on before the 20th when I leave) and then we are going to begin replacing the top two upper crowns on the left. They are old and misshapen (the previous dentist who did these was very bad.) My dentists says the new crowns will make my bite better and will eliminate the big spaces between my teeth that are there now due to these old crowns not fitting properly. So....again we take one giant step forward and three tiny steps back. Oh well, such is life I guess....I really will have a $100,000 smile when I'm all done with this.

Side view of implant