Blog - Dental stuff
Dental stuff
I have relatively healthy teeth, no cavities and all, but this week I faced some weird-ass dental problem that I feel should be documented. So here goes...
(Nothing gory, but the faint of heart may prefer to stop reading here.)
Recently I had a mouth ulcer (aka canker sore) in a spot on my top-right-outer gum. I occasionally get those and never worry much since they heal in a few days or a week. However yesterday that spot felt strange on my tongue, and I was a bit horrified when I looked in a mirror... There was a hole in my gum, and some part of bone was sticking out of it!
So today I went to a dentist, and it seems like this is really a rare case, in fact he had never heard of such a thing. After taking an X-ray, he cut the protruding part of the jawbone with laser, which only took a few minutes. He used some local anaesthetic so that was completely painless, and I was given some gargle medicine to be taken 3 times a day or if/when painful. Now that the bone is out of sight, the hole should heal within a few weeks. Whew!
The dentist didn't know of a name for this, and I found absolutely nothing when searching the web, so here it is, duly documented. I would have named it "maxilarry spur", but seems like this already refers to something (?).
This search led me to some Indian doctor who puts Excel files containing surgery details and patient [last] names on his Angelfire account...!
Posted on June 21, 2006 at 21:21 | Tweet
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If I click the print with high res photos. Will I actually see photos? So can you tell us how much the damage was for the dentist? I will be visiting one soon and am not looking forward to the bill.
Posted by Roy on June 21, 2006 at 23:34
Still gotta remove that hi-res link for entries without photos. :)
I had ¥4000 on me and I was already asking the lady whether I could pay by credit card, but turned out the bill was very cheap, ¥1090! And it was even the first time I went to that place, I think they usually charge you some extra the first time for creating your account and card.
Posted by Patrick on June 21, 2006 at 23:37
I've had the same thing happen to me. I went to the dentist and was given a mouth rinse that stained my teeth quite a bit and in a couple of weeks the hole was gone and my gums were in a heck of a lot better shape. Come to find out my problem come from using an electric toothbrush plus I was brushing too hard. Since I ditched the electric for one of those old time manual brushes, I haven't had any problems.
Posted by Jon on June 21, 2006 at 23:37
Wow, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one, and that it truly does heal! I was also given some rather stinky brownish mouth wash that I'm not enjoying too much.
Posted by Patrick on June 21, 2006 at 23:41