Dental cleaning

Cleaning by the dentist's hygienist. No new problems. Old problem areas doing OK. #31 healing fine.

Follow up on #31

The oral surgeon's person removed the packing. The problem has nearly gone away. No more packing. I had fresh medication and packing in the hole on November 11, 13 and 17.

Give it gentle cleaning and irrigation at home.

Dental cleaning postponed...

...to November 25, by then #31 should be much better.

#31 continued

The doctor's assistant cleans the hole and packs it with some kind of medicated gauze. I'll need to repeat this several times.

Dry socket complications

Serious pain in the area of #31. Feels like dry socket to me. I called the surgeon and he can see me tomorrow.

Getting #31 pulled

The tooth that needs to be extracted is a big molar on the lower right. It has complicated roots and my regular dentist and I both want an oral surgeon to take it out. So I'm at the doctor's at 7:45 A.M., with my driver, to have tooth #31 removed. The procedure seemed to go well although I was out cold for the whole thing. After I came to he gave me a prescription for lots of Oxycontin.

A New Orthopedic Surgeon

At 3:00 P.M. I went to the new orthopedic surgery place. It's a big place with lots of doctors and helpers. My former orthopedic doctor was by himself with just four assistants.

They took x-rays and then I waited for the surgeon's Physician Assistant to examine and interview me. He said there were no alternatives to the total knee replacement, on the left side -- there's almost nothing left there -- and then he tried to show me pictures and plastic models of what they have to do during the surgery. I told him I was bothered by all that and he seemed quite disappointed.

He told me to get this operation done as soon as I can. When I asked for a more specific time frame he said do it in the next six to eight weeks.

My very sore right heel, that keeps me awake at night and makes me limp worse the the left knee, has tendinitis and (I wasn't clear about this) it's either hard to fix or the fix doesn't usually work. The podiatrist and the other orthopedic doctor said nearly the same. Or they didn't say much but really confused me.

Next step for tooth #31

The dentist saw me at 10:30 A.M. and after looking at the x-ray referred me to a oral surgeon who will see me early Thursday morning.

The dangers of flossing

While flossing under the old bridge, lower right side, I heard a tiny click and the bridge popped off. Looks like tooth #31, the back tooth of the bridge, has decayed away. It doesn't hurt at all. I'll call the dentist first thing Monday morning.

I have worried about this bridge for at least ten years. I knew there were problems with #31. It had several root canals and there was some evidence of a cracked root. But every time it flared up it got better in a few days. I always dreaded what they would have to do to remove it when the time came. As it was, I did it myself very painlessly.