Public Service Announcement. I rarely do anything like a PSA, but today I started a relatively long, extremely painful process. Dental reconstruction. Relativity to 2 wheels? That's where my dental down-swing begins. I think I was about 11 years old, I had been riding a little dirt bike(mid 70's Yamaha GT 80 Enduro)for about 2 years, thought I was pretty hot shit, lol! I went to spend a week with my cousins in Denver Co., they were just a couple years older than me and they rode dirt bikes too. One day my oldest cousin took me to their local motocross track. I was in heaven! Growing up on a farm in Iowa mx tracks were something I only dreamed of! Now this track was still under construction, so my cousin tells me to stay off the inside of the track because it dangerous. Me, being the know-it-all 11 year old I was took off for the inside 1st thing. I don't really remember what bike it was, but it was my cousins little Suzuki dirt bike. I got rolling on what was supposed to be "Off-limits", took a couple small jumps, getting comfortable. I see one that just has my name on it, I set it up, hit it just right, and as I'm landing, my back wheel hits terra firma and my front end goes off the edge of a 6 foot wall into a hole that was being worked on. Endo'd hard, and even though I had a typical old 70's 3/4 lid with a bubble shield, I still ate the cross bar for lunch. The collision between teeth and steel ended up with me snapping my top front 2 teeth and the one to either side, and 2 front bottom teeth. Not clean breaks mind you, I looked like a vampire that just got shit knocked out of it. After many root canals, and other extremely painful procedures, I had 6 permanent caps. No other injuries from the endo, just 6 broken teeth.
That was the beginning of the end. Over the years between horrible dental habits and some other habits that are very damaging to teeth it finally came to a head. It had gotten to a point that I couldn't enjoy eating because of the pain, was missing time at work due to dental infections, and was just generally miserable. Now I can make excuses all day long, some are valid, some are not, it really doesn't matter, it's my own damn fault. The bottom line is that if I had taken the proper care of my teeth I wouldn't be going through this. A couple weeks ago I went in for a thorough dental exam, it didn't end well. Three teeth on the bottom have to be pulled and we may be able to save what's left on the bottom. The top on the other hand, is done. Every tooth has to come out(13 left) and I'll be wearing a full upper denture. I'll say it, I'm a complete f'n idiot, I'm 44 years old and will have full upper dentures. I've made my bed, I'll sleep in it.
It started today, 2 hrs of the most intensive dental cleaning I've ever had. They numbed me pretty good and the hygienist did her thing. Then it was off to the man himself, the dentist. Even though I was numbed, the 20 minutes he spent pulling 4 teeth was agonizing. He took the 4 most infected and I must admit that now, almost 6 hours later, I'm still hurting, but with the infected crap gone I feel better, albeit in pain, lol!
I could go on for a while, I haven't been to a dentist in a very long time and the changes are nothing short of fantastic, but when it comes to pulling, it's still as bad as I remember it. The bottom line is, take care of what you have. I would wish what I'm going through upon no one.
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